The State Council has approved the establishment a
cross-ministerial coordination meeting system to track down those
responsible for severe workplace accidents.
Led by the Ministry of Supervision, the system incorporates the
public security and justice ministries, the State Administration of
Work Safety (SAWS), the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme
People's Procuratorate.
The system was set up to strengthen information sharing and
coordination in identifying those responsible for serious workplace
accidents, a statement on www.gov.cn, the official website of
the central government, said.
The system will also help authorities to crack down on criminal
activities such as trying to hide an accident, delaying the release
of information about it or fleeing the scene.
One vice-minister from each of the six ministries have been
named as lead participants of the meeting system, with Chen
Changzhi, deputy minister of supervision as convener.
The six ministries will, in principle, meet once a year to
discuss problems relating to work safety and as required in the
event of an emergency.
It is already standard practice for an investigative team
comprising officials from various ministries to be set up in the
event of a serious accident.
After 64 people were killed last month when a bridge collapsed
in Fenghuang County, Hunan Province, an investigative team
comprising representatives of the SAWS, the ministries of
supervision, construction and communications, and the Supreme
People's Court and Supreme People's Procuratorate was formed.
The State Council has already rolled out a regulation on the
reporting of production safety, in which it stressed the
establishment of a coordinated system between the work safety
administration and judicial departments on dealing with those
responsible for accidents.
The SAWS and the Ministry of Supervision also unveiled a
regulation specifying the penalties for illegal activities detected
in workplace accidents last year.
In an interview with the Southern Weekend last month, Huang Yi,
a SAWS spokesman, said such a system is necessary, as it usually
requires several departments to punish those responsible.
"People who violate criminal laws will be transferred to
judicial departments and the supervisory department will hand out
administrative penalties," he said.
"It is a joint effort, and thus requires cross-ministerial
communication."
The system will ensure the implementation of the punishment, he
said.
"We can't let those responsible get away with it when the cause
of the accident is clear," he said.
The SAWS website said 62,557 people have been killed in
workplace accidents between January and August.
(China Daily September 19, 2007)