At 11.00 on February 18, 2020, the opening ceremony of the “44^th New Agent Training Program” of the Agency Against Corruption (AAC), Ministry of Justice (MOJ), was held at the Anti-Corruption Training Center. Justice Minister Ching-Hsiang Tsai presided and gave the address at the ceremony. In addition to Prosecutor-General Hui-Ming Chiang of the Supreme Prosecutors Office, Acting Chief Prosecutor Kuo-Yeh Song of the Taiwan High Prosecutors Office, Chief Secretary Hui-Chuan Liao of the Civil Service Protection and Training Commission, District Executive Hui-Ming Shih of Pinglin District Office, Deputy Justice Minister Pi-Chung Tsai and AAC representatives, AAC Director-General Ming-Chian Cheng  also invited chiefs of the government employee ethics units of competent authority, where the agents were assigned.

     First, Justice Minister Tsai congratulated all trainees for passing the civil service ethics category of the 2019 Civil Service Senior Examination and Junior Examination and joining the civil service system to maintain civil service ethics. The Minister also thanked the Civil Service Protection and Training Commission for the huge support of the AAC training by arranging useful training courses for the new AAC agents.

     According to Justice Minister Tsai, based on the 2019 Corruption Perception Index (CPI) announced by Transparency International on January 23, 2020, among all 180 countries and regions (including Taiwan) rated, over 84% of all countries in the world, Taiwan was ranked 28^th, the best results since the adoption of the new standards in 2012. It is a moment of honor for all new agents to join the AAC and their responsibility also grows heavier. He hopes that the AAC can set clear goals, make continuous efforts and demonstrate teamwork.

     To encourage new AAC agents, Justice Minister Tsai shared with them the following five points: “maintain integrity and uphold conduct before fighting corruption,” “develop professional ability and acquire related government procurement licenses,” “care for risk maintenance and prevention is better than cure,” “quality communication and coordination and impressive ethics affairs service,” “value security maintenance and protection of official confidential information.” Justice Minister Tsai added, risk management and prevention should be the perquisites for preventing corruption. When an investigation is required, anti-corruption measures should be planned in advance according to the entity’s characteristics. The AAC should enhance cooperation with the private sector to help promote business integrity and ethics and make inspiring and touching publicity to win public recognition, support and trust.

     Lastly, Justice Minister Tsai encouraged the new agents to learn the basic knowledge and develop communication and coordination abilities required for anti-corruption during the training program, in order to demonstrate their specialties to achieve the goals through the mentoring of senior agents and supervisors.

     A total of 83 agents, 51 females and 32 males, attended the training, including 60 (72%) for civil service legal ethics and 23 (28%) for civil service financial ethics. Among them, 34 agents graduated from law schools (or graduate institutes of law), accounting for 41%. These 83 new agents have good education and accomplishments. After 14 weeks of training, they will surely be a new powerful force of the AAC to effectively strengthen government ethics and develop a quality civil service culture.

     In the presence of Minister Tsai, Prosecutor-General Chiang, Director-General Cheng, and honorable guests, the opening ceremony of the “44^th New Agent Training Program” ended smoothly about one hour later at noon.