After-service 'salary' often form of graft

When some government officials retire, they tend to take up jobs with enterprises formerly under their jurisdiction.

In some cases this is illegal, as what the officials are being paid as "salary" is actually remuneration for favors shown to the enterprises when they were in service. Such is the lure that in some cases officials are known to seek early retirement, to lay their hands on the handsome remuneration early.

This kind of vested interest must be curbed. The Law on Civil Servants has laid down clear clauses forbidding retired or resigned civil servants from taking up jobs in profit-making enterprises linked to their previous office for a certain period of time, but loopholes still exist.

Some of these officials provide "consultancy services" to the enterprises without actually joining them and thus get paid for the "services".

Qiu Ping, a former public security official on cybersecurity affairs in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, was paid 3.2 million yuan ($480,000) for such "services". And he is only one of many such retired officials.

Another trick is to trade influence for money. Guo Deqing, a former official in Baiyin city, Gansu province, "coordinated" paperwork for a company in the city after retirement and got paid. He was actually taking the help of "friends" who were still in service.

To crack down on such illegal practices, it is necessary to strengthen the disciplinary supervision system so that every official, in service or retired, is closely monitored.

One city after another has been tightening the rules in this regard, but clearly that's not enough. It is necessary to ensure that retired officials don't find any loopholes either.

－THE CENTRAL COMMISSION FOR DISCIPLINE INSPECTION, ON ITS OFFICIAL WEBSITE