Altay s Countdown to Officials Assets Declaration

On September 16, Altay Prefecture s clean administration website was launched with a column titled countdown to assets declaration of county-level leading cadres. By September 13, officials declaring their assets had voluntarily handed over income against discipline and law totaling over 330,000 yuan.

On January 1, 2009, Altay Prefecture of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region led the country in implementing an officials assets declaration system.

January 20, 2009 is the deadline for responsibility exemption during the first declaration if cadres voluntarily hand over their income against discipline and law.

We had not expected so much attention from the media, which has given us a lot of pressure, an official from the CPC Altay Prefecture Committee told reporter recently.

On May 25, 2008, CPC Commission for Discipline Inspection, Bureau of Supervision and Corruption Prevention Office of Altay Prefecture released a regulation of assets declaration for county-level leading cadres (abbreviated as the Regulation), which says from the beginning of the next year Altay would lead the country in implementing an officials assets declaration system. A short regulation of merely 23 provisions made Altay, a prefecture close to China s northeast border, on news headlines nationwide.

On September 16, Altay Prefecture s clean administration website was launched with a column titled countdown to assets declaration of county-level leading cadres. By September 13, officials declaring their assets had voluntarily handed over income against discipline and law totaling over 330,000 yuan.

Anti-corruption experts said assets declaration of officials is a core anti-corruption procedure. National Corruption Prevention Bureau announced to implement an assets declaration system shortly after its founding. But Altay led a national policy to initiate the key anti-corruption measure. However, some people predicted the mechanism in Altay would eventually be aborted.

Four key anti-corruption measures

Four key measures during this official declaration in Altay include declaring all assets rather than income alone; official s ranking are not the only standard; introduction of outgoing declaration; most declarations are publicized.

Wu Weiping, a member of CPC Altay Prefecture Committee and Director of Altay CPC Commission for Discipline Inspection, has worked for discipline inspection at the grassroots level for over 20 years. Wu should take the credit for the birth of the Regulation.

Wu, in his forties, was head of a discipline inspection and supervision office under Altay CPC Commission for Discipline Inspection before becoming the Director of Altay CPC Commission for Discipline Inspection. He once assisted CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection in investigating several cases.

In his long-term investigation work, Wu realized that preventing corruption is more important than fighting corruption, which stimulated him to draft the Regulation. When he reported his idea to the Standing Committee of CPC Altay Prefecture Committee, it won unanimous support.

The Regulation was launched after a lot of research and survey and collection of suggestion. This relatively short regulation is full of innovation, especially the four key measures in preventing corruption.

First is to expand the declaration scope from income declaration in the past to assets declaration. Assets declaration covers the income from salary, bonus, subsidies, benefits and payment from consultation, lecturing, freelance writing, editing, calligraphy and painting as well as gifts, festival packets, valuable securities, payment instruments, complimentary meals, accommodation, tours and entertainment and other forms of gift received by the declarers parents, spouses and children.

This has almost covered all possible means of obtaining assets and income by Party and government officials.

The Regulation also says purchase, trade, leasing of chattel personal and real estate worth over 100,000 yuan and income from inheritance and giveaway and accidental income should also be declared.

This regulation has provided an important basis for whether Party and government officials income sources are legal and whether their wealth growth is normal. If an official s account suddenly received a large sum of money and he or she could not explain it persuasively, this official would be in trouble.

Second, the declaration requirement does not rely on administrative ranking of an official but also the real power the official has.

According to the Regulation, officials required to declare their assets include all county-level cadres in all departments and agencies as well as judges, assistant judge, prosecutors, assistant prosecutors and public security investigators who are qualified to investigate a case a independently s well as section-level cadres with law enforcement qualifications and administrative public properties in government departments of industry and commerce, taxation, finance (government procurement centers), transportation, water conservancy, urban construction, land and natural resources, civil affairs, environmental protection, labor and social security, poverty alleviation and tourism management.

Some experts believe that this is an important contribution to construction of clean administration since some officials of relative low rankings can also become corrupt due to their control of real powers from the experience of cracked cases.

Third is that the Regulation says officials assets declaration include three types of post assumption declaration, annual declaration and outgoing declaration, of which outgoing declaration is extended to three years after the retirement. This has put up a firewall against officials taking briberies afterwards.

Fourth is the Regulation says all income related to leading cadres position and power should be publicized timely through Altay Prefecture s clean administration website and local mainstream media so as to accept effective social supervision.

Is it a show?

Some people doubt with established supporting measures, it is possible for officials to hide their assets during the declaration. The implementation of this system is difficult.

A leading cadre from another place of Xinjiang even bluntly told reporter, This system will eventually be aborted.

This cadre believes without many measures related to making assets declaration public, how could the masses or media judge whether officials cheat in declaration? If they could not make such judgment, how could they supervise the system?

This cadre says only after the supervision of the banking system and review of audit department are put in place and every procedure becomes transparent can supervision be really implemented.

Despite the overall praise toward the Regulation, many people doubt the motive of such a regulation. They believe since it is extremely difficult to implement this regulation, it is more a show than an effective policy.

Other people believe officials with serious corruption problems would receive punishment according to Party discipline, government discipline and laws if they reported their assets honestly. Under such circumstances, they would probably hide and lied about their assets.

Aware of such a scenario, the Regulation has one provision encouraging the masses to report on officials who lie in assets declaration, assets and income from unknown sources and exhibit serious inconsistency between their legal assets and consumption levels. However, how to supervise corrupt officials who are good at faking and hiding their assets very cautiously?

Still other people point out the Regulation contains provisions that tolerate corruption. Parts of the declaration, including large-sum and suspicious transactions, still belong to classified material, which can only be mastered by discipline inspection and supervision organs and corruption prevention department. Media can apply to consult and use these classified declaration material after an official receives serious Party discipline and government discipline punishment or criminal penalty. Then people have reason to suspect that at least this part is still trying to avoid sunshine.

Implementation of the system

On September 16, 2008, Altay Prefecture s clean administration website was launched with a column titled countdown to assets declaration of county-level leading cadres.

Altay Prefecture authorities try to keep this Regulation low key with a cautious attitude. CPC Altay Prefecture Committee, Altay Administrative Office and publicity departments all declined interviews politely, citing the trial stage of this regulation.

However, a leading cadre of CPC Altay Prefecture Committee said firmly that the release of this system had gone through careful research and surveys beforehand and all provisions had been repeatedly deliberated. Whatever is the outside reaction, we will continue to implement it, he said.

This leader emphasized that enactment of this policy was not intended to give officials a hard time, but out of inevitable demands of development of China s legal society as well as the practical needs for civil servants to protect themselves and perfect themselves.

This leader also said since it was feeling the way across the river, the Regulation must contain many things needing to be perfected. He said they would carefully listen to opinions from all sides and try to make the Regulation more operational.

Despite the low key, Altay has taken steady steps in implementing the Regulation. September 16, 2008 witnessed the launch of Altay Prefecture s clean administration website, jointly created by CPC Commission for Discipline Inspection, Bureau of Supervision and Corruption Prevention Office of Altay Prefecture.

The most eye-catching part on the website is a column titled countdown to assets declaration of county-level leading cadres. The column announced the total amount of income against discipline and law handed over by declarers in the three months after the release of the Regulation. January 20, 2009 is the deadline for responsibility exemption during the first declaration if cadres voluntarily hand over their income against discipline and law.

To cooperate with the implementation of the Regulation and facilitate the handover of income against discipline and income for county-level leading cadres, discipline inspection and supervision organs at all levels in Altay set up a 139 bank account of clean administration. It is regulated that assets declarers all income against discipline and law before the declaration can be sent to this account anonymously.

A cadre from Altay CPC Commission for Discipline Inspection told reporter that so far this 139 account of clean administration has received over 330,000 yuan from assets declarers.

There is still a long way to go in implementing the Regulation.

(Source: www. people.com.cn)