FSC chair’s resignation surprises legislators

Liu said details would be revealed “at an appropriate time” if there was to be a Cabinet reshuffle.

But he stressed that Gordon Chen resigned voluntarily as chairman of the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) having felt tired and too much pressure.

The Cabinet has been under strong pressure to make a reshuffle for failing to boost the economy.

The main opposition Democratic Progressive Party has also been demanding the president replace the premier.

Chen is the second Cabinet member who has resigned since Ma became president and appointed Liu as premier in May. Lin Fan-yue stepped down as health minister over the melamine food scare.

Chen’s resignation was announced Friday to the surprise of the nation, including lawmakers from the ruling Kuomintang.

KMT Legislator Lai Shyh-bao said he had been unaware of the resignation, as Chen had just talked to him two days ago about the FSC’s future directions.

Lai said the Legislature had been critical of the FSC’s sluggish reaction to the global financial crisis, but lawmakers had never demanded he step down.

Asked if Chen was pressed to step down from the KMT, Lai said he was as surprised as many of his party colleagues about his departure.

But Chen’s resignation has raised an issue concerning the personnel orders he had made.

Chen submitted his resignation on Nov. 19, but the FSC approved six major personnel changes within it ranks on Nov. 27. The changes were made public one hour before the Cabinet announced his resignation Friday.

“This may give rise to disputes,” said Chen Ching-hsiu, head of the Cabinet’s Central Personnel Administration (CPA) in reference to the changes.

The CPA chief cited regulations as indicating that no such personnel orders should have been made after the FSC chairman tendered his resignation.

But an FSC official was cited by the Central News Agency as claiming that the procedures of personnel changes had already started on Nov. 11, and the FSC’s personnel staff had not been aware that Chen had already submitted his resignation.

Sean Chen, chairman of SinoPac Financial Holdings and a former vice finance minister, will take over the FSC leadership.

According to the latest Directorate General of Budget Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) report, Taiwan’s economy posted negative growth of 1.02 percent in the third quarter of 2008 and is likely to see further negative growth of 1.73 percent in the fourth quarter.

The DGBAS also forecast that the country’s economic growth will probably stand at 1.87 percent for the whole of 2008 and 2.12 percent for 2009.

The latest forecast marks a significant revision compared with the previous outlook, issued in August before the current global financial crisis became obvious, which projected growth of 4.3 percent for 2008 and 5.08 percent for 2009.

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