By streamlining the Taiwan Provincial Government, the ROC government aims to improve the country's administrative efficiency, as well as reach a reasonable distribution of central and local powers. Former provincial employees, however, are not too thrilled about the trimming process.
In order to manage a country with an area of more than eleven million square kilometers, or about one-twelfth of the world's total land area, the early Republic of China adopted a system of central, provincial, city and county, and township governments. Under this system, thirty-five provincial governments served as the highest administrative arm of local govern ment, a level that was to be a bridge between the central and the nearly three thousand county and city governments. This four-level administrative design, however, was not given proper time to mature before a Chinese civil war broke out and the Nationalist (KMT) government moved to Taiwan. Since 1949, Taiwan has been the only complete province under the control of the ROC government.
The fact that the Taiwan Provincial Government (TPG) and the central government often overlapped didn't seem to be a problem in the beginning. However, as Taiwan democratized and public demands for government efficiency increased, people started to think the island perhaps did not need a four-level administrative system, and that there were better ways to adjust the central and local powers. In December 1996, the National Development Conference (NDC) achieved a consensus between the two major parties and the public on government efficiency and the reasonable distribution of central and local powers: it would be necessary to "downsize" or "streamline" the TPG.
The TPG was certainly not very happy about this. In fact, it didn't even acknowledge that the NDC had reached a consensus at all, since neither the TPG nor the Taiwan Provincial Assembly were asked to give their views on the issue. "From an administrative point of view, we couldn't agree more that the country needed government re-engineering," says Wu Yau-fong, who was the director of the TPG's former Department of Personnel, and is now retired. "This re-engineering should, however, have included all levels of government instead of taking it out on just the provincial government."
Wu says that the TPG had in fact started a re-engineering project more than a year before the NDC consensus was announced. Through a hiring freeze and the privatization of province-owned businesses, the TPG managed to streamline its workforce from more than 170,000 when the Self-Governance Law was enacted in 1994, to less than 130,000 by the end of 1998. It had also planned to adjust itself by relinquishing about thirty-five percent of its administrative responsibilities, with half going to county and city governments, and the other half to the central government. But that plan, thanks to the three-week NDC, never had a chance to take shape. The TPG's dissatisfaction about its dilemma was expressed when the first-and-only popularly elected provincial governor James Soong announced his resignation several days after the NDC decision had been reached (though the resignation was never approved and he "stayed" until the end of his tenure in 1998).
The idea of shrinking the TPG, a plan said to be in accord with the opinions of Taiwan's major political parties and the public, was in fact a shock to many people on the island. They questioned whether the NDC consensus was a pre-announce ment for Taiwan's independence, or some kind of power struggle. Despite all of the different voices and the TPG's dissatis faction, however, the consensus was put into the ROC Constitution in July 1997, and the Taiwan Provincial Government Functions, Services and Responsibilities Restructuring Commission, chaired by Premier Vincent Siew and consisting of leaders from the central and provincial governments, was set up the following month. Six teams under the commission worked on the TPG's functions and organization, laws and regulations, employees' rights and retraining, property, and the privatization of provincial businesses. "Our principle is that the streamlining process should be smooth and moderate," says Yeh Wei-chyuan, director of the Overall Planning Department at the Research, Development and Evaluation Commission, which is responsible for the streamlining project. "It means that a proper time should be given to negotiations, communica tion and adjustment, and that employees' rights and benefits should be guaranteed the best they can."
In October 1998, to provide the streamlining process with a legal framework, the Legislative Yuan passed the Provi sional Statute on the Adjustment of the Function, Business and Organization of the Taiwan Provincial Government, and had the Law on Local Government Systems, and the Law on the Allocation of Government Revenues and Expenditures passed and reviewed in January 1999.
Based on the principles of the commission and the regulations stipulated by the laws, the streamlining of the TPG was to be divided into three phases. The first (the planning stage) began in December 1998--when the popularly elected TPG and members of the provincial assembly had completed their terms--and lasted until the end of June 1999. During this period, the TPG and the Taiwan Provincial Assembly were reorganized--from an autonomous local body and a province-level legisla ture, to organs of the Executive Yuan and an advisory council. Individual provincial departments and corresponding central government agencies met to work out a detailed plan for the transition of human resources, services and property.
During negotiations, the TPG tried to maintain its jurisdiction on businesses that didn't overlap with the central govern ment, or businesses that it had handled competently for decades. Provincial schools, water resources, and motor vehicle inspection offices, for example, should have remained under provincial management. But since the Provisional Statute on the Adjustment of the Functions, Business and Organization of the Taiwan Provincial Government not only took the TPG's autonomous power away but also stipulated that all provincial assets and debts were to be handed over to the central govern ment, the TPG couldn't go anywhere in its negotiations. "A reasonable power distribution between the central and local governments was one of the original ideas in the NDC that led to the decision to downsize the TPG," Wu says. "But what happened is that all the power has been taken over by the central government, with the local governments getting nothing."
July 1999 marked the beginning of the second phase of TPG streamlining, the one in which the actual handover takes place. Fifty-eight departments, bureaus and offices were merged into central government agencies. Thirty-six hospitals and medical institutes, 170 schools, and 179 subordinate agencies have been re-allocated to the jurisdiction of corresponding central government agencies. The TPG's Department of Agriculture and Forestry, for example, was merged into the Executive Yuan's Council of Agriculture. Hospitals and schools that were under the TPG's Department of Health and Department of Education are now under the Executive Yuan's Department of Health and the Ministry of Education, respectively. To gether, more than NT$1.4 trillion (US$43.5 billion) in provincial property and NT$700 billion (US$21.7 billion) in debts were transferred to the central government. With fewer than 1,000 employees, the TPG now manages the Historical Research Commission of Taiwan Province, and Car Accident Judging Committees in twelve areas, as well as thirteen sections or offices of civil affairs, cultural and educational affairs, economic planning, finance, social and public health affairs, general affairs, information, personnel, accounting, and anti-corruption, as well as a secretariat.
The handover of assets and debts has caused another problem. In the past, when local governments had a development project, they raised part of the funds and received financial support from both the provincial and central governments. According to Wu, the TPG needed about NT$120 billion (US$3.7 billion)--two-thirds from the central government and the rest raised by the TPG itself--to finance local development projects every year. But in the fiscal year of July 1999 to Decem ber 2000, the downsized TPG has an approved budget of some NT$770 million (US$24 million), with NT$620 million (US$19 million) of it for personnel costs and NT$140 million (US$4.3 million) for general expenditures. It doesn't have anything left to give to local governments. The central government claims that the revised Law on the Allocation of Govern ment Revenues and Expenditures will season local government coffers, but local governments complain that they are worse off financially. Both sides have provided a lot of numbers and statistics, but it seems that so far neither can convince the other.
Besides real estate and businesses, an important part of the handover list was the employees. Along with their depart ments and bureaus, a total of more than 120,000 provincial employees have been moved to the central government. Ever since the NDC consensus was reached, the central government has reassured provincial employees that their rights and benefits will be protected. "Re-engineering doesn't mean laying off people to make the size of the government smaller," Yeh says. "It's a re-allocation of government employees so that every person can be placed in the position that suits them best so they can serve the people best."
But the central government wasn't completely able to persuade TPG employees to stop worrying. Wu Yau-fong explains that provincial employees had two major concerns: their rights to work and to stay in their original offices. "Many of us have worked and lived there for years. We've bought real estate, our families work there, and our children go to school there," says Wu, who had devoted forty-two years of his career as a public servant to the TPG. "We don't want to be forced to choose between going to Taipei [to work] and handing in our resignations, because we don't deserve to face such a difficult situa tion."
This concern is being temporarily alleviated by changing the provincial government's office signs into those of the central government's offices. But Wu has observed that his former colleagues don't really believe they can work and live happily under such terms. The results of a recent poll conducted by Tunghai University under the commission of the newly established Provincial Advisory Council show that eighty-five percent of former TPG servants don't think they will be able to work there until they retire. Wu says that the cause of these jitters is that during the eighteen months of the second phase (July 1999 to the end of 2000), central government agencies, combining their original businesses and workforce with those they have taken over from provincial agencies, must complete their internal structure adjustments and have their organization laws revised. If the results of such internal restructuring turn out to be that there are a lot of vacancies in the central govern ment's Taipei headquarters but few left for central Taiwan branch offices, people will be forced to choose between moving to Taipei and quitting.
In order to avoid facing such a situation, former provincial employees have been trying to become employed by the new TPG or to relocate to city or county governments in central Taiwan. Yeh Wei-chyuan explains that provincial employees are being encouraged to advance their civil service careers in city and county governments, which have long been facing staff shortages. "If local governments are to patch the shortage with new people, it means thousands of names will be added to the government's manpower list," he says. "But if the shortage can be filled by transferring willing provincial employees, the total number of government employees does not need to be increased, and it will not cause any extra labor expenses to the country." Former TPG personnel director Wu, however, believes the actual situation is not that optimistic, since cities and counties have their own personnel policies and do not necessarily welcome outside recruitment. He estimates that only about a hundred former TPG employees now work for city and county governments.
While TPG employees are still wondering about the future, their "new" offices have already started to function. Al though these offices still handle the same things as when they were provincial departments, Yeh Wei-chyuan says that the procedures are very different, adding that documents that once needed to be submitted to central government agencies can now be finalized on the spot. Premier Siew has emphasized on several occasions that the central Taiwan branch offices should be able to work independently--meaning they should make decisions instead of sending everything back to their Taipei headquarters for approval.
But Wu Yau-fong doubts whether changing provincial departments into central Taiwan offices for the Executive Yuan can really help promote government efficiency. For one thing, licenses and permits that have to be issued by the central government still need to be sent to Taipei, because the official "chops" needed for these documents cannot leave their Taipei headquarters. "If the efficiency of the ROC government is improved, it is because we have re-engineered all four levels of government," Wu says. "I frankly don't believe this can be achieved by simply taking out the provincial administration."
In actuality, the eighteen months of the second phase of the streamlining process will provide a great opportunity for central government agencies not only to assimilate provincial businesses and employees, but also restructure themselves. When the third phase of the streamlining begins in 2001, and the Provisional Statute on the Adjustment of the Functions, Business and Organization of the Taiwan Provincial Government comes to an end, people will be able to see whether the ROC government has really become more efficient, and whether the powers of the central and local governments have been reasonably redistributed.