Anti-smoking activists inTaiwanyesterday blasted government bodies for sending lawmakers cigarettes as Mid-Autumn Festival gifts, according to a story in The China Post.
The Tung Foundation said it was ‘absurd’ that the Transportation Ministry’s liaison officials to the legislature were using tax-payers’ money to buy lawmakers harmful gifts for the upcoming festival.
Transportation Minister, Mao Chi-kuo, said he had known nothing about the gifts until he read about them in the news.
He agreed that the cigarettes were improper gifts and said he had already instructed everybody in his department to avoid offering such gifts in the future.
The foundation said the gift blunder clearly showed that the government had not taken anti-smoking policy seriously.