A top legal official has stressed that the establishment of
special bureaus tackling civil servants' dereliction of duty and
abuses of power shows the authorities are ready to deal with the
problem.
Twenty-four such bureaus have so far been established at the
provincial level since the Supreme People's Procuratorate ordered
the renaming and upgrading of the anti-dereliction and infringement
sections of procuratorates to bureaus in May last year.
In the latest development, procuratorates at all levels in
Shanghai finished the upgrade this month.
The upgrade means that these bureaus have the same status as
anti-corruption bureaus and gives them more powers during
investigations.
In line with the upgrade, the Supreme People's Procuratorate
issued a regulation on the definition and categorization of
dereliction and infringement crimes this July.
"To some extent, dereliction crimes bring more harm than
embezzlement," Song Hansong, deputy director of the
anti-dereliction and infringement department of the Supreme
People's Procuratorate.
Dereliction of duty and abuses of power mean activities by civil
servants that cause the loss of State assets or infringe upon
people's rights.
Unlike other kinds of corruption such as taking bribes or
embezzlement, dereliction often does not bring direct benefits to
officials and is therefore referred to as "corruption that does not
make its way to the pocket."
An analysis of cases in 1998, 1999 and 2000 shows that the
average economic losses involved in embezzlement cases were 258,000
yuan (US$33,000), while the sum in dereliction cases was 2.85
million yuan (US$364,000), Song said. "This doesn't even include
the harm caused to people's health," he told the paper.
The new bureaus deal with as many as 42 crimes, many more than
the 12 crimes overseen by anti-corruption bureaus.
Song said corruption is always linked with dereliction and the
abuse of power.
"Judging from the cases in recent years, corruption always lurks
behind dereliction and the abuse of power, while bribery always
encourages officials to abuse their power," he was quoted as
saying.
Officials guilty of dereliction of duty are often involved with
serious production safety accidents, food safety crisis or
suspects' false confessions, the paper reported.
Eleven dereliction cases involving 88 people have been uncovered
in connection with a series of serious mining accidents that
claimed hundreds of lives this year, Song said.
In these cases, the guilty officials often failed to conduct
safety inspections or protected the owners of illegal coal
mines.
At a meeting last month, Li Yizhong, minister of the State
Administration of Work Safety, said dereliction of duty and
corruption would always be investigated whenever an accident
occurred.
Song said the biggest obstacle in terms of the inspection of the
dereliction of duty is a prevalent lack of knowledge of the grave
consequence of these crimes.
(China Daily December 16, 2006)