Notary agencies would face heavy fines for abusing their powers
under a proposed law being reviewed during the ongoing session of
the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC).
The law, designed to make the country's 3,162 notarial offices
and 20,000 notaries more accountable and reliable, calls for fines
of up to 100,000 yuan (US$12,000) for fake notarization, in
addition to payment of compensation for any losses.
The draft was created amid rising public fury over cases
involving notarial abuse.
In March, a lottery ticket seller in Xi'an garnered all the top
prizes -- three BMW sedans and 360,000 yuan (US$43,500) in cash --
by giving the winning tickets to his accomplices. The notary
overseeing the lottery, it turned out, did not verify the identity
of the winners and was charged with dereliction of duty.
Creating a new law is imperative in order to "restore the image
of notary agencies and buoy the public's confidence in
notarization," said NPC Standing Committee member Nan Zhenzhong
during a group discussion on Sunday. Notary services are currently
regulated by a central government directive issued in 1982.
The draft law specifies a number of violations for which
notaries may be penalized, such as notarizing for family members,
but also contains a catchall clause that includes "other activities
banned by laws and regulations."
"Lawmakers would usually avoid using such all-inclusive general
articles on punishment for fear of making administrators
excessively powerful," said Liu Junhai, a researcher with the
Institute of Law?of the Chinese Academy of Social
Sciences.
This law makes an exception because the drafters want to be
particularly strict, he said.
The draft also requires future notary hopefuls to pass the
national bar exam, currently a mandatory test only for judges,
prosecutors and lawyers.
Legislators have agreed with the tough supervision principles,
but questions remain in some other areas.
One hot spot is the location of notarial agencies.
The draft requires notarial offices to be opened only in
counties or districts of big cities. At present, notarial services
are also available at city and provincial levels.
NPC Standing Committee member Zhuang Gonghui believes that
downgrading notarial services could affect the quality of
notarization. He said that notarial services of provinces and big
cities are more professional, whereas many irregularities tend to
occur in small places.
"In many international deals in Tianjin, such as loans from the
World Bank and the Asian Development Bank, only notarization by the
municipal notarial office is accepted, whereas that of district
offices is not," said Zhuang, whose constituency is in Tianjin.
(China Daily December 29, 2004)