Target corrupt village heads

China's anti-graft authority should target the corruption and power abuse of grassroots officials in villages and towns, says an article in the Study Times.

Excerpts:

Chinese President Xi Jinping compares corrupt senior officials to “tigers” and corrupt lower-rank officials to “flies”. After the sacking of hundreds of officials above city mayor level in the anti-graft campaign begun two years ago, the authority should not neglect the abuse of power and graft of officials in villages and towns.

They are the executors of all policies and distributors of various kinds of subsidies, assistance funds and land compensation. Nepotism makes investigation of village and town heads extremely difficult. In some villages one has to pay millions of yuan to buy votes to become chief.

Some corrupt village heads accumulate hundreds of millions yuan in a short time through embezzling government funds that should have been used to compensate or subsidize ordinary farmers' land loss and agricultural works. China's urbanization makes land business a cash cow for many such village heads.

Transparency is a good way to strengthen supervision of a village. The central authority should make disclosure of village and town finance and spending compulsory. More importantly, villagers must have channels to complain to higher authorities and judicial departments about grassroots heads' wrongdoing.

Power in a village can be shared among several people on a committee and this balance of power can reduce the chances of abuse by a single person.