China's ruling Communist Party of China (CPC) made public Sunday three regulations to promote Party officials' accountability and state-owned enterprise leaders' honesty, as well as strengthen inspection work inside the Party, aiming to curb corruption and improve government competence.
According to the regulation on officials' accountability, officials with the following misconduct should be removed from their posts:
-- Making a wrong decision that leads to great losses or has serious negative impact;
-- Serious or a spate of accidents or cases occurred in the official's jurisdiction or working unit due to his or her dereliction of duties;
-- Serious or a spate of accidents or cases occurred in the official's scope of duty due to lax management or supervision by government;
-- Power abuse, malfeasance, or ordering or encouraging others to commit illegal administrative activities, which lead to group protest or other serious incidents;
-- Incorrect handling of group protests or accidents, which exacerbates the situation or has serious negative impact;
-- Violating official selection or appointment regulations, which leads to mistakes in appointing officials and have serious negative impact;
-- Other conduct that harms national interests, results in great losses to people's lives, personal or public property, or has serious negative impact.
A spate of corrupt misconducts in recent years triggered nationwide investigations into officials' accountability. In one of the latest cases, 14 officials were dismissed in Chaohu City in east Anhui Province for running a jobs-for-money network.
Zhou Guangquan, the former Communist Party secretary of Chaohu city, was accused of accepting bribes worth 5 million yuan (about 735,000 U.S dollars) on June 3.
Prosecutors then discovered that among the 36 people who bribed Zhou when he was secretary of the Communist Party of China Chaohu City Committee from 2000 to 2004, 19 were government officials who were promoted after giving Zhou bribes.
According to the fresh regulation, officials will be given even more severe punishment if they interfere with the investigation of their misconduct, forge and hide evidences or take revenge on whistleblowers.
Officials with serious misconduct will be transferred to judicial departments for further investigation and punishment if their misconduct is deemed criminal.
Officials have the right to testify for themselves before a accountability decision is made, and "reasonable opinions" will be taken into account, said the regulation.
Also, a decision must be brought to leading officials for group discussion before it becomes final.
Chinese disciplinary organs have punished 2,386 officials at or above prefectural level for their misconduct from July 2003 to December 2008, according to the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI).
Another 29,905 officials at county level were also punished during the same period, the CCDI said.
According to the regulation on state-owned enterprise leaders' honesty, company leaders are not allowed violate company principles and procedures to make major policies on production management, appointment and removal for key positions or management of huge money.
They should not adjust the salaries, bonuses and other benefits of company leaders without the approval of personnel departments.
The regulation also specifies various kinds of company leaders' spendings in disguise of work duty, including traveling aboard, buying cars and luxurious office decorations among others.
Party committee secretary, board chairman and general manager are the main principals to supervise company leaders in accordance with the regulation. Violators will be given punishment ranging from warning, demotion to removal from post.
The third regulation on Party's inspection work specifies that the missions for an inspection team include hearing reports, attending regular meetings of local organizations, talking with officials and residents and reporting issues to party organizations at higher levels among others.
Also, the team has the right to further investigate problems concerning local organizations or officials on the premise of not interfering with their current work.
Members of an inspection team will be given punishment ranging from name-and-shame, demotion to removal from posts if they seek personal benefits during inspection work, reveal classified information or fabricate evidences.
(Xinhua News Agency July 13, 2009)
