An anti-corruption system that lays equal stress on punishment
and prevention and takes account of the environment of a developing
market economy is in the making.
The supervisory system must be strengthened to restrict
officials' abuse of power while laws and regulations related to
combating corruption are established, said Zhu Xudong, director of
the Research Institute of the Central Discipline Inspection
Commission of the Communist Party of China.
Zhu made the remarks at a conference entitled Strengthening the
Punishment and Prevention Mechanism of Anti-Corruption organized by
the Supreme People's Procuratorate in Beijing over the weekend.
There should be strict supervision of major government
departments in order to prevent leading officials from misusing
their power, said Zhu.
He pointed out that supervision must be intensified in the
selection of officials, and the operation of financial capital and
state-owned assets, adding that legal measures, auditing and
supervision all have a role to play.
"A sound and effective anti-corruption system should involve a
series of interrelated mechanisms of prevention, restraint,
punishment and self-discipline," Zhu said.
Legislating against corruption should be one of the most
important tasks for lawmakers in the period to come, he
advised.
Highlighting the importance of the legal system in preventing
and combating corruption, Professor Wang Mu from the China
University of Political Science?and Law said a seamless system
must be established to supervise government officials, including
senior officials.
Cheng Wenhao from the School of Public Management in Tsinghua
University emphasized the role of education in preventing
corruption, describing it as a long-term and strategic task.
Corruption has been on the rise since China launched its reform
and opening drive in the late 1970s. From 1998 to 2003, 36
officials at provincial and ministerial level were involved in
corruption cases. Six officials at provincial and ministerial level
and 537 officials above county level were punished for corruption
in 2003.
As China continues its rapid socio-economic transformation,
transparent and efficient government becomes increasingly
imperative to create an equal and fair society for all people, said
an official from the United
Nations?Development Program (UNDP).
"We support China's efforts to develop a balanced and effective
anti-corruption system and see the Supreme People's Procuratorate
as having an important role to play in the new anti-corruption
system," said Renaud Meyer, deputy resident representative of
UNDP's China Office at the conference.
In 2002, UNDP launched a three-year legal system reform project
to assist the nation's court, procuratorate and public security
authorities to adopt and implement new rules and policies in
deepening legal system reform.
Thanks to the project, working guidelines to prevent corruption
have been formulated and key prosecutors from the anti-corruption
procuratorate bureaus have been trained to enhance their legal
skills and professionalism.
"Our programs support the government's efforts to strengthen
transparency and accountability within the civil service and the
judiciary through the development of specific anti-corruption
legislation and codes of conduct and through independent mechanisms
for oversight, monitoring and enforcement," Meyer said.
With the UNDP's support, China actively participated in the
drafting of the UN Convention on Anti-Corruption and signed the
convention in December last year.
(China Daily November 15, 2004)