North China’s Shanxi Province announced 16 new city and provincial officials on Monday as part of the provincial government’s efforts to end its corruption-plagued image, which analysts hope could serve as a model for the nation.

The provincial government appointments included several city officials and county heads in Lüliang as well as heads of the provincial transport department. Several senior officials of both government bodies were investigated last year.
It was the first large-scale personnel revamp after Shanxi installed its new Party leadership last September, the Xinhua News Agency reported.

Speaking at a Monday conference, Shanxi Party Chief Wang Rulin said the government underwent a rigid selection system to prevent suspected corrupt officials from being promoted or appointed. “We highlighted discipline in the selection process and avoided influence peddling,” he said.

Candidates will undergo six rounds of inspections and interviews from local organization departments and disciplinary watchdogs at both city and provincial levels. Family members of the candidates will also face real estate and business inspection, according to Wang. More than 620 officials and 380 officials have been interviewed in Lüliang and the transport system.

“Discipline inspection commissions used to play a perfunctory role in appointments and promotions. They have become more active in scrutinizing not only officials but their family members as well,” Li Yongzhong, deputy director at the China Discipline Inspection and Supervision Institute, told the Global Times.

Wang said that over 3,000 questionnaires were used to survey the public, in addition to secret inquiries and interviews. The final candidate list was also published on local media for the public to offer information on potential anomalies.

A total of 622 candidates were interviewed for job vacancies in an unidentified city in Shanxi, but one candidate was found to allegedly be involved in corruption within half a month and another candidate, who also claimed to be clean, was investigated within a month’s time, China National Radio (CNR) reported.

“The reshuffle can gradually improve the political landscape in Shanxi and change the way officials are promoted, forcing officials to be self-disciplined and free of corruption if they want to be promoted,” Gao Bo, an anti-graft expert at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times.

The Shanxi government’s experience serves as a guide to ministries and other local governments on how to deal with a large number of job vacancies, Ren Jianming, a public administration expert at Beijing-based Beihang University, told the Global Times.

“The selection process could also become part of the anti-corruption institution,” Ren said.

The resource-rich province was hard-hit by the nation’s sweeping anti-corruption campaign since last year. A total of 15,450 officials were punished in 2014, including seven provincial-level officials and 45 officials at the city or bureau level, according to CNR.

There were nearly 300 vacancies in the provincial administration, including three city Party chiefs, 16 county Party chiefs and 13 county heads, Wang revealed earlier.

“Massive job vacancies, especially a lack of department heads, could affect a local government, even bringing the bureaucracy to a halt,” Ren said, adding that deputy heads can sometimes temporarily manage day-to-day operations.

“While rebuilding efforts will be implemented in some provincial governments to fill vacancies left from last year’s anti-graft campaign, it should be noted that the war against corruption is far from over. China will continue to put pressure on corrupt officials in the new year,” Gao said.