Economic crimes committed by village heads, the lowest-ranking
officials in China, have increased in recent years creating new
challenges to anti-corruption endeavors, according to a law
expert.
Wang Jianxin, from the Law School of the Jiangxi University of
Finance and Economics in eastern China, recently completed a survey
of village officials' abuse of power and related economic
crimes.
Wang Jianxin said that amid campaigns against corruption by
high-ranking officials, corrupt grassroots officials have increased
in quantity. Such cases involved bribes valued at thousands, tens
and even hundreds of thousands yuan (from US$240 to US$1.2
million).
The economically developed eastern province of Zhejiang reported
55 cases of embezzlement by village cadres in 2003. Haidong
Prefecture, in Qinghai Province in the northwest, reported seven
cases involving 11 village heads investigated and prosecuted
between 2002 and 2003. Five years earlier there were no such crimes
reported at village-level in the region.
Song Yexian, former party head of Longgang Village in eastern
China's Anhui
Province, was recently sentenced to three years' imprisonment
for illegally dividing 31,000 yuan (US$3,735) in public funds with
other village committee members. Song's crime also included bribery
valued at 10,000 yuan (US$1,205).
Song was an orphan brought up by the villagers and honored as
"No.1 village head" in Anhui for his outstanding achievements. He
led the community in setting up a village-owned company, and made
his village rank first in the province in terms of overall strength
for six consecutive years.
Prior to this, Jin Mingchi, committee head of Dali Village in
Zhengzhou, capital of the central province of Henan, embezzled 2
million yuan (US$240,964) in public funds. Another case involving
10 million yuan (US$1.2 million) in state-owned capital was
reported in southwest China's Guizhou Province. The money was
appropriated by village committee members.
Wang Jianxin said corrupt village officials accumulated wealth
through various illegal means. These included making fraudulent
claims, illegally taking compensation money for land use and funds
for construction projects, and selling off public properties.
Though their ranks were low, the money they embezzled was as
much as their high-ranking peers. The punishments these corrupt
lower officials receive were not light, said Wang Jianxin, with
prison sentences ranging from several years to decades.
The rapid increase in village-level corruption was ascribed by
Wang Kaiyu, a researcher at Anhui Academy of Social Sciences, to
the patriarchal behavior of the grassroots officials and their
almost unlimited power to exploit villagers' poor awareness of the
law. Wang Kaiyu said absence of a supervision system for village
committees also contributed.
At present, no special organs have been established to supervise
the daily work of village committees, nor an audit system, said
Wang Kaiyu. No other efforts have been made to audit village
work.
Central government's support for agriculture and farmers has
brought about great changes in villages nationwide, and has made
more funds available for appropriation of farm land and
infrastructure construction.
Wang Kaiyu said the corruption not only affects village-level
democracy, but also erodes the relationship between cadres and the
masses. In some richer villages, more and more farmers resorted to
bribery to win elections. As the officials are close to the people,
their corruption can trigger conflict and hence exert pressures on
social stability, Wang Kaiyu argued.
Wang Jianxin called for rules to be enforced and supervision
systems established to plug regulatory loopholes. He suggested that
money and books should be managed by different people and that all
expenses should be scrutinized.
To connect village officials' income with villages' revenue
would also be an effective way to prevent corruption, other experts
suggested. They said the State should enact a preventative law.
(Xinhua News Agency April 13, 2005)