The Guangdong
Provincial Bureau of Personnel is drafting a new and detailed
regulation to help standardize the resignation of civil servants.
The new regulation is part of the province's contribution to the
nationwide battle against corruption.
Former officials will be prohibited from accepting positions in
businesses where they can take advantage of their government
connections for three years after they have left their government
posts.
The new regulation is expected to come into effect in the second
half of 2005 if the Provincial People's Congress approves it by
early next year.
An official from the Guangdong Provincial Bureau of Personnel
said the new regulation is aimed at preventing corruption in the
prosperous province where development of the market economy is
advanced.
The decision to draw up the new regulation came after a spate of
complaints from local People's Congress deputies and members of the
Provincial People's Political Consultative Conference.
They frequently asked why so many civil servants had recently
resigned, according to the personnel official.
Increasing numbers of graduates in the province are attracted to
a career in the civil service, which offers them good conditions,
benefits, good promotion prospects and the chance to study
abroad.
Yang Jianyou, a deputy to the?Guangdong Provincial People's
Congress, said that the growing number of civil servants who
resigned to work in the local private sector looked suspicious.
Many new opportunities for corruption exist, warned Yang, who
posits that senior officials who refuse to take bribes while in
office may have been offered a highly paid post to grant a project
to a contractor illegally.
Yang urged all departments of the government to standardize the
resignation of local civil servants and stamp out corruption.
Many civil officials, including some senior ones, have resigned
to work in the local private sector in Guangdong in recent
years.
Jiang Chongzhou, former director of the Guangzhou Municipal
Bureau of Environmental Protection, resigned to become the vice
general manager of a local property company in August 2003.
In March 2002, Liu Zhihang, former executive director of the
Shunde District of Foshan, also resigned. Liu, who was also once
the director of the Shunde District Bureau of Finance, was
immediately appointed vice president of Shunde Midea Holding
Company, a company listed on the Shenzhen stock exchange and a
leading home appliance maker.
Jiang and Liu are estimated to be earning more than 1 million
yuan (US$120,000) a year, more than 10 times their original annual
income.
(China Daily August 16, 2004)