China sacked 19,374 civil servants from 1996 to last year as part of its efforts to build a clean and efficient government, according to figures released by the Ministry of Personnel.

The figures also showed that a total of 32,549 civil servants have quit their government jobs to work in enterprises, including overseas-funded companies, since the provision on resignation and dismissal of civil servants was issued in 1995.

According to the provision, civil servants who fail two consecutive years of performance assessment, or who are found to be incompetent and refuse to accept other job arrangements, should be dismissed.

Civil servants who were absent from work for 15 consecutive days without justifiable reasons, or who failed to perform their duties or abide by civil service regulations are also subject to dismissal.

Previously, government officials, widely known as cadres, enjoyed lifelong employment if they committed no serious mistakes or crimes.

The supervision departments punished 3,798 civil servants and other staff members for poor performance in the fight against SARS last year.

The campaign against poor performance and illegal activities uncovered irregularities involving 8.8 billion yuan (US$1.1 billion), according to a Ministry of Supervision report in March this year.

(Xinhua News Agency July 6, 2004)