Government and Policy

Officials will be pushed to disclose asset

By Zhu Zhe and Xie Yu (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-03-12 06:49

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But 'time not ripe yet' for legislation on officials making wealth public

BEIJING: The government will step up efforts to strengthen an initiative that asks officials to declare assets but there is no legislation in the offing, Minister of Supervision Ma Wen has said.

A Party guideline issued last September requires officials to report such details as income, property and investments as well as the jobs held by spouses and children.

But many people complain that the list is not exhaustive and there is no effective way to ensure such a system is well implemented. They are seeking a law making it mandatory for officials to declare total assets.

"The task this year is to implement and improve the new system," Ma, also deputy secretary of the Central Commission of Discipline Inspection (CCDI), the Party's anti-corruption watchdog, told China Daily.

"It (the guideline) may fail to meet public expectations, but we will do it (the fight against corruption) step by step."

Ma also said measures to ensure tighter supervision of officials whose children or spouses are abroad will be announced "very soon".

Li Fei, deputy director of the NPC Standing Committee's legislative affairs commission, earlier brushed aside demands for a timetable on a law requiring officials to fully declare their fortunes. He said on Wednesday that the legislative process "should proceed only after conditions are ripe".

"Support measures should first be set up to ensure that property declarations on tax payments and personal credit systems are binding," he said.

More than 90 countries require senior officials to disclose their assets. In Russia, senior officials including President Dmitry Medvedev declared their family assets last year.

China has been trying to take similar measures since the 1990s. In 1995, the Central Committee of the CPC and the State Council jointly released a regulation requiring officials above the county level to report their income.

In 2001, the CPC released another regulation requiring officials above the provincial and ministerial level to report their family assets to the Party.

Liu Xirong, former secretary of the CCDI, said evaluating officials is difficult if their assets are not disclosed to the public.

"It would be difficult to assess whether they have abused power without accurate knowledge of their financial situation."

Some local governments have started trials in this regard.

In December, the Chongqing municipal people's congress passed a regulation asking senior officials in the municipal court and the procuratorate to report their assets.

The information will be made public and those who submitted false declarations are liable to be sacked.

The fight against corruption has been gaining momentum at the grassroots level thanks to the Internet.

Nearly a dozen corrupt officials were punished last year thanks to netizens' vigilance.

Earlier this month, Han Feng, an official of the tobacco monopoly bureau in the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, was brought down after a sex diary he had allegedly written was posted online.

Ma Wen said her ministry "values online reports and supervision" and appreciated their "positive effect".

"We should facilitate public supervision."