Premier Cho Jung-tai Backs Budget Increase to Ease Frontline Judicial Staff Shortage

Executive Yuan President Chuo Rong-tai recently appeared before the Legislative Yuan to answer questions from lawmakers. In response to concerns raised by Kuomintang-affiliated People First Party legislator Chen Zhaozi regarding the severe shortage of grassroots judicial personnel and the excessive workload at correctional facilities, Chuo made a clear statement. During his response, Chuo acknowledged that the total budgeted personnel quota for the central and local governments nationwide currently stands at just over 130,000, which has not yet reached the statutory ceiling for authorized positions. He explicitly expressed support for alleviating the long-standing staffing shortages faced by frontline government agencies by increasing budgeted personnel quotas. However, addressing calls from the public and legislators from both the ruling and opposition camps to amend relevant laws, Chuo emphasized that the government currently does not need to modify the Total Number of Personnel of Central Government Agencies Act to achieve its goals. He stated that within the existing legal authorization and fiscal discipline framework, the Executive Yuan can substantively resolve the personnel shortage through its annual budget formulation and personnel quota review mechanisms.

The core focus of the questioning session was the long-overlooked personnel crisis in Taiwan’s judicial and correctional system. For years, prison officers, probation officers, court clerks, and grassroots judicial personnel across various levels of prosecutors’ offices and courts have been trapped in a vicious cycle characterized by high pressure, long working hours, and significant staff attrition. As crime patterns become increasingly complex and cases involving fraud and drugs surge, the workload of judicial personnel has escalated exponentially. However, government personnel quotas have failed to keep pace, leading to frequent instances of overwork at the grassroots level. This not only impacts the quality of human rights protection and the management of detainees but also poses a hidden risk to overall social security. In her questioning, Chen Zhaozi presented data and conveyed the voices of frontline workers, demanding that the executive branch propose concrete countermeasures and compelling the Executive Yuan President to address this long-accumulated systemic issue.

In responding to the lawmakers’ questions, Chuo further elaborated on the Executive Yuan’s comprehensive considerations regarding personnel and fiscal planning. He noted that the original purpose of establishing the Total Number of Personnel of Central Government Agencies Act was to prevent unlimited expansion of government organizations and excessive inflation of personnel costs, thereby ensuring the soundness of the national fiscal health. Nevertheless, there has always been a certain degree of operational flexibility between the statutory personnel ceiling and the actual budgeted quotas. Chuo revealed that the current actual budgeted personnel quota nationwide is maintained at a scale of just over 130,000, which remains a significant distance from the maximum limit permitted by law. This implies that the Executive Yuan actually possesses policy tools; provided that an urgent need is assessed for maintaining public order, judicial justice, and the operation of correctional agencies, the executive branch can gradually release positions through internal reviews and budget coordination with the Directorate General of Budget to fill the gap for judicial personnel.

Chuo’s explicit stance that “amending the Total Number of Personnel Act is unnecessary” reflects a comprehensive consideration of administrative efficiency and political timing. The legislative amendment process is often too slow to address immediate needs, requiring lengthy cross-party negotiations and bill review procedures in the Legislative Yuan. It may also trigger conflicts among various ministries over personnel allocation, thereby blurring the focus on the most urgent judicial and correctional staffing issues. In contrast, utilizing the flexible allocation authority granted to the Executive Yuan under the current act to directly add personnel quotas in the annual general budget is a relatively simpler procedure with faster execution. It also demonstrates the administrative team’s resolve to act promptly upon identifying issues. As long as the Executive Yuan and the Examination Yuan coordinate effectively on the selection and distribution of candidates, newly recruited personnel can be deployed to the front lines more quickly, yielding immediate results.

This policy statement holds significant indicative importance for Taiwan’s judicial reform and civil service system. For many years, the issue of insufficient grassroots judicial personnel has largely remained at the level of verbal concern, rarely receiving such a direct budgetary commitment from a top executive leader. Chuo’s expression of support for increasing budgeted personnel quotas effectively opens the door for grassroots judicial and correctional personnel who have long suffered from understaffing. The key next step will be whether the competent authorities, including the Ministry of Justice and the Judicial Yuan, can submit specific and persuasive personnel demand assessments and implement them in the formulation of next year’s central government general budget. Only by translating policy support into actual budget allocations and personnel recruitment can the judicial personnel shortage be truly eliminated, thereby consolidating the foundations of the rule of law and social security in Taiwan.

(Source: Central News Agency)