When someone shares with you something of value, you have an obligation to share it with others.
Thursday 19 March 2009
Party backs demand for officials to show assets
An influential Communist Party newspaper has backed growing public calls for officials to declare their personal assets, saying this approach was “the ultimate method to fight corruption”.
An influential Communist Party newspaper has backed growing public calls for officials to declare their personal assets, saying this approach was “the ultimate method to fight corruption”.
The Study Times, a weekly published by the Central Party School, which trains the country’s political elite, said yesterday that making officials declare their assets would be crucial to the success of systematic efforts to curb corruption.
The report said officials had to give up some of their financial privacy and accept supervision from the public. But it noted that many officials would react with panic and strongly oppose such a move.
The asset-declaration rules should be implemented in a “gradual and careful” manner, since the move would involve a large number of officials at different levels across the country, the newspaper said.
The report said it would not be necessary to require all officials to declare their assets because of the great public cost it would incur. Instead, the practice should first be implemented among senior officials at the provincial level or above, or among those who handled important economic affairs. It could be gradually expanded in future.
The report echoes support from the country’s leadership and a public weary of officials’ graft.
Premier Wen Jiabao promised the public this month to make government affairs more transparent and to make officials’ assets public. Since then, several civil servants have declared their assets online using their real names.
“Corrupt officials who abuse authority mostly look to acquire personal assets,” the newspaper said. “Examining personal assets is a practical way to target corrupt officials and the best way to uncover and check corruptive practices.”
Some analysts say the leadership must take a tough stand and impose the rules on officials at all levels across the nation, rather than just a limited set of officials.
Wang Xixin, professor of public affairs at Peking University, said: “Corruption happens at every level and in every department, not just economic-related ones.
“For example, the corruption situation is severe in organisation departments. We see too many officials from the departments selling and buying official positions. How about county-level officials? Many of them embezzled and took bribes of astronomical sums of money.”
He said the public was ready and the technology available to launch the across-the-board declaration system on the mainland.
“More than 80 countries already have asset-declaration systems for officials. Sweden has had one in place for 240 years,” he said. “Our people have been waiting for it for 20 years. There’s no excuse for China’s government to delay further.”
Professor Wang said he was optimistic that an asset-declaration system would go nationwide because the central government showed its support for the idea.
“The central government should offer officials two choices: declare or quit,” he said.
An online survey by Xinhua found that corruption was the biggest source of discontent among 63,000 respondents, beating the economic slowdown and unemployment.
1 comment:
Party backs demand for officials to show assets
He Huifeng
19 March 2009
An influential Communist Party newspaper has backed growing public calls for officials to declare their personal assets, saying this approach was “the ultimate method to fight corruption”.
The Study Times, a weekly published by the Central Party School, which trains the country’s political elite, said yesterday that making officials declare their assets would be crucial to the success of systematic efforts to curb corruption.
The report said officials had to give up some of their financial privacy and accept supervision from the public. But it noted that many officials would react with panic and strongly oppose such a move.
The asset-declaration rules should be implemented in a “gradual and careful” manner, since the move would involve a large number of officials at different levels across the country, the newspaper said.
The report said it would not be necessary to require all officials to declare their assets because of the great public cost it would incur. Instead, the practice should first be implemented among senior officials at the provincial level or above, or among those who handled important economic affairs. It could be gradually expanded in future.
The report echoes support from the country’s leadership and a public weary of officials’ graft.
Premier Wen Jiabao promised the public this month to make government affairs more transparent and to make officials’ assets public. Since then, several civil servants have declared their assets online using their real names.
“Corrupt officials who abuse authority mostly look to acquire personal assets,” the newspaper said. “Examining personal assets is a practical way to target corrupt officials and the best way to uncover and check corruptive practices.”
Some analysts say the leadership must take a tough stand and impose the rules on officials at all levels across the nation, rather than just a limited set of officials.
Wang Xixin, professor of public affairs at Peking University, said: “Corruption happens at every level and in every department, not just economic-related ones.
“For example, the corruption situation is severe in organisation departments. We see too many officials from the departments selling and buying official positions. How about county-level officials? Many of them embezzled and took bribes of astronomical sums of money.”
He said the public was ready and the technology available to launch the across-the-board declaration system on the mainland.
“More than 80 countries already have asset-declaration systems for officials. Sweden has had one in place for 240 years,” he said. “Our people have been waiting for it for 20 years. There’s no excuse for China’s government to delay further.”
Professor Wang said he was optimistic that an asset-declaration system would go nationwide because the central government showed its support for the idea.
“The central government should offer officials two choices: declare or quit,” he said.
An online survey by Xinhua found that corruption was the biggest source of discontent among 63,000 respondents, beating the economic slowdown and unemployment.
Post a Comment