Cabinet to strengthen vetting of civil servants amid espionage probes

Taipei, April 17 (CNA) Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) on Thursday ordered a review and reinforcement of civil servant security vetting procedures, amid espionage investigations into multiple senior government aides.

At a press briefing in Taipei, Cabinet spokesperson Michelle Lee (李慧芝) cited Cho as saying that the current security vetting system and its implementation needed to be reexamined and strengthened to "prevent infiltration through every possible means by foreign hostile forces."

According to Lee, Minister without Portfolio Ma Yung-chen (馬永成) has been tapped to take on the tasks and given two weeks to come up with measures to improve the system.

Security vetting of public servants is currently governed by Article 4 of the "Civil Servant Employment Act" (公務人員任用法) and a set of regulations created under the auspices of that legislation.

The law authorizes government agencies to conduct "special vetting" of applicants for civil service positions involving the handling of "matters of national security or significant national interests" as well as candidates' "character and loyalty to the nation."

However, a series of recent Chinese spying cases involving several people employed by senior Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) government officials have raised concerns about systemic weaknesses and enforcement lapses.

One of the cases involves Ho Jen-chieh (何仁傑), a former assistant to Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) during the latter's tenures as foreign minister and National Security Council (NSC) chief.

Wu, the current NSC secretary-general, headed the council from May 2016 to May 2017 before serving as foreign minister from February 2018 to May 2024 under former President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文).

According to a report by the Liberty Times, Ho was officially vetted in 2016 before working for Wu, and that was the only check on his background during his eight years of service.

Asked if Ho had been adequately vetted, Directorate-General of Personnel Administration head Su Chun-jung (蘇俊榮) said only that the government "might consider doing annual security checks in the future."

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said last week that Ho went through "a regular security check" when he followed Wu to the ministry and had not been under the purview of special vetting in the "Civil Servant Employment Act."

Meanwhile, Cabinet spokesperson Lee said Thursday that vetting according to the aforementioned legislation was currently based on job titles and rank rather than the level of access to confidential information.

She added that this was one aspect the Cabinet would review as it works to improve the vetting system.