The Examination Yuan has a president, a vice president, and seven to nine commissioners, all of whom are special appointees. All candidates are nominated by the President of Taiwan (ROC), and after being approved by the Legislative Yuan, serve a four-year term of office. The organization also has a secretary-general and a deputy secretary-general. All policies and major issues must be decided by the Examination Yuan Council.
The Examination Yuan has three subordinate bodies: the Ministry of Examination, the Ministry of Civil Service, and the Civil Service Protection and Training Commission. The Ministry of Examination is in charge of national examinations including civil service examinations and examinations for professional and technical personnel. The Ministry of Civil Service is responsible for the qualification screening, bereavement compensation, and retirement functions for civil servants, as well as legal matters regarding their employment, discharge, performance evaluations, scale of salaries, promotions, transfers, commendations, and awards. The Ministry also includes the Bureau of Public Service Pension Fund. The Civil Service Protection and Training Commission is responsible for policy and legal matters regarding the protection of the rights and interests, and the training and continuing education, of civil servants. The Commission also plans and handles protection matters, the recruitment of newly qualified civil servants, civil servant promotions, and many kinds of statutory training regarding administrative neutrality, as well as medium to long-term developmental training for senior civil servants. The Commission has also established a National Academy of Civil Service with the Civil Service Protection and Training Commission chairperson concurrently serving as the academy’s president, as well as a Central Taiwan Training Center.
1. Examination Yuan Council
The members of the Council include the Examination Yuan’s president, vice president, commissioners, and the heads of subordinate ministries, with the president as chairperson. When the president is unable to attend Council meetings, the vice president acts as chairperson. When both the president and vice president cannot attend, a chairperson is chosen by acclamation by the members present. The Council meets once per week and convenes extraordinary sessions when necessary to make decisions regarding examination and civil service policies and relevant major matters.
The Council uses a collegial system and may only officially convene when a majority of members are present, and a resolution may only be passed if a majority of members present vote in the affirmative. When the vote is evenly divided, the chairperson casts the deciding vote. In addition to the prescribed Council meeting attendees, the Examination Yuan secretary-general and deputy secretary-general, as well as the deputy heads of subordinate ministries and organizations, also attend meetings in a non-voting capacity. When necessary, the president may also designate other personnel as non-voting attendees.
The members of the Council have always taken a proactive approach to the Examination Yuan’s responsibilities, researching and planning matters within the organization’s remit. Based on practical needs, Council members travel abroad to observe and research civil service systems in other countries to use as a reference in planning and improving the domestic examination and civil service functions. To strengthen communication with a wide range of stakeholders and expand the level of participation in the examination and civil service legal systems and administration, members also frequently conduct on-site visits at various agencies and institutions, taking a “management by walking around” approach to policy marketing by visiting their counterparts to engage in personal dialogue, listen to diverse voices, and gather valuable input. This helps members understand the personnel situations at agencies and institutions at all levels, and review examination and civil service policy implementation issues so that policies formed by their collegial system process are more closely aligned with public opinion, and feasible.
2. Examination Yuan Headquarters
The Examination Yuan has a secretary-general and a deputy secretary-general to assist the president in handling day-to-day affairs, and includes various departments, centers, offices, and committees responsible for: formulating and planning policy guidelines and programs, and examination and civil service policies; reviewing examination and civil service policies, laws and statutes deliberated by subordinate agencies and institutions; and providing administrative support. In accordance with their statutory duties, the various constituent units of the Examination Yuan take a proactive approach to public service, strengthening the advisory personnel and service capabilities for strategic decision making to enhance the quality of the Examination Yuan Council’s policy decisions and administrative effectiveness.
3. Ministry of Examination
The Ministry has a minister, a political deputy minister, and an administrative deputy minister, and includes various departments and offices. The Ministry is responsible for two major categories of national examinations: civil service examinations, and professional and technical personnel examinations.
To examine and select suitable candidates, civil service examinations are conducted approximately 9 to 10 times each year to select around 7,000 civil servants, and about 10,000 specialized civil servants, to meet manpower needs at all levels of government.
Professional and technical personnel examinations are conducted approximately 9 to 10 times each year in 79 occupational categories including law, finance, social work, engineering, medicine, pharmacy, and maritime affairs to provide the talent required for national social development.
4. Ministry of Civil Service
The Ministry has a minister, a political deputy minister, and an administrative deputy minister, and includes various departments and offices, and the Bureau of Public Service Pension Fund.
The Ministry is responsible for the employment, discharge, performance evaluation, scale of salaries, promotion, transfer, insurance, retirement, and bereavement compensation matters of civil servants, as well as managing their pension fund and the personnel organizations at government institutions.
To meet national development needs and adapt to changing times, the Ministry actively reviews and improves civil service policies and systems. The Ministry hopes to construct a forward-looking, pragmatic, comprehensive, and sustainable civil service system so that civil servants can devote themselves to their work without undue worries, thereby enhancing government effectiveness and maintaining long-term, overall national competitiveness.
5. Civil Service Protection and Training Commission
The Commission has a minister, a political deputy minister, and an administrative deputy minister, with 10 to 14 commissioners. Five to seven of the commissioners serve on a full-time basis, and are nominated by the Examination Yuan president and appointed by the president of Taiwan (ROC). The remaining five to seven commissioners are appointed by the Examination Yuan president and serve in a concurrent capacity. All commissioners serve for three years, and may be reappointed upon completing their term of office. The Commission has also set up various departments and offices.
The Commission has two major functions. The first is to ensure the reasonable rights and interests of civil servants and encourage them to fulfill their duties faithfully and energetically by: deliberating protection cases fairly and impartially according to law giving equal consideration to procedural and substantive justice; and by raising the quality of protection case reviews, upholding the dignity of law enforcement by civil servants. The second function is to cultivate outstanding public service manpower and promote effective government administration by establishing a civil service training and continuing education system that integrates national training resources, and enhances the overall quality of civil service manpower while cultivating national public service human capital.
In addition, to respond to national civil service training needs, the Commission established the National Academy of Civil Service as well as the Central Taiwan Training Center.