Officials feel naked heat

• Source: The Global Times
• [22:30 April 27 2009]
• Comments

 Three steps forward

The regulation requires officials register and declare their annual income including salary, welfare, bonuses, money obtained from teaching and writing, as well as any "gifts" or cash accepted by officials or members of their family for work-related reasons.

If the official reception is cool, then not every citizen of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region is welcoming Altay's pioneering anti-corruption plan.

"It's meaningless publishing only the salary," said Alip Wufur, a Uygur businessman based in Urumqi, the region's capital. "The 'gray' income, you know, all that hidden income that Chinese officials make, is not reflected in the declaration at all. And it's frankly impossible that not a single one of these officials ever received gifts or cash over the years."

Local officials earn a salary only slightly higher than average for the region, according to the published information, said Alip. "But what it signally fails to show is whether they own big houses or fancy cars by dishonest means," he said.

In fact, all their property must be declared, said Wu. But in confidence, away from public scrutiny, and subject to the inspection of his committee.

The secret declaration includes:

      --bequests, perks like compensation or food and board, traffic costs and entertainment "that may affect justice" received by officials, their parents, spouses or children;

      --earnings made from contracts with State-owned enterprises;

      --purchase and trading of real estate and chattel over 100,000 yuan, and the source of that money;

      --income derived from stock, securities and futures trading, and the source of that money;

      --property or money acquired through inheritance, bestowments or lottery;

      --job-related credits or debts over 10,000 yuan;

      --any other income that the official believes best be declared.

Under the terms of the new local regulation, all or any money deposited in a specially established anti-corruption account by the relevant official before making a declaration will not be used in evidence against him, said Wu. By the end of February this year, cash and gifts totaling 1 million yuan had been handed in. About 760,000 yuan arrived last year, and the rest came from the extra 945 officials during January and February.

The declaration system is proving an effective deterrent, argues Wu.

Secrecy is a flawed approach, believes Wang Quanjie, one of the National People's Congress deputies who advocates the right of the people to watch over officials.

"The difference between secret and transparent declaration depends on to whom you give the right of supervision – to the people or to the direct supervisors," Wang told sohunews.

"The main reason there is so much corruption in China is because of the lack of a transparent supervision system."

More pragmatic critics see the secrecy as a necessary transitional arrangement on the road to full transparency.

"There's never been a law on the books requiring that officials declare their property interests, so it's asking a bit much for them all of a sudden to register 11 types of property and income," says Xiong Guangping, a senior lecturer at the Altay Communist Party School.