Foreign Perspective

Expect the best, prepare for the worst

By Deng Yuwen (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-08-11 07:53

Officials who don't think twice before rocking the country's boat and are ready to abandon it at the first sign of danger not only dampen Chinese people's spirits, but also damage the country's image.

To fight corruption and reduce the number of fleeing officials, the government has to strengthen its institutions, especially in terms of supervision and transparency. It should take steps, too, to ensure that power is exercised within the realm of law.

In a truly official property reporting system, the contents must be open to the public, which should have supervisory powers, too. There should be complementary systems of verification and provisions of punishing officials who furnish false reports.

Only after these conditions are met will the property-reporting rules really help fight corruption. From this perspective, the two new regulations have major flaws in institutional design.

The regulations require officials from the county-level and higher-ranking officials to disclose their family investments, holdings, incomes, changes in their marital status and the whereabouts of their spouses and children if they have migrated abroad. But the organs receiving the reports do not have the wherewithal or power to cross-check the facts and supervise the reporting procedure. Moreover, any declaration that is not transparent cannot be supervised by the public.

Therefore, the two regulations cannot be seen as a sound official property reporting system. At best, they are a small step toward establishing such a system. In the light of the huge resistance to the implementation of property reporting, we could start from "naked officials" to promote honest income disclosure, for it gives other officials a chance to prove their innocence. Otherwise, it would be unfair to other officials, and the actions of "naked officials" would overshadow the role of honest officials in the functioning of governments and society.

The authorities should expedite their efforts to improve and perfect the early warning mechanism to prevent corrupt officials from fleeing abroad.

It has to first set up a data bank on "naked officials" and compel them to furnish the amounts and sources of their incomes, the amounts their spouses and children spend abroad, and check their expenses with their known sources of income. Second, deputies to the people's congress at different levels should exercise their power to openly answer questions on "naked officials". Third, assets of "naked officials" should be supervised more strictly. And fourth, the authorities have to extend to all parts of the country the regulation issued by the Shenzhen municipal government last year, which prohibits "naked officials" from serving as leading officials in major CPC and government departments.

Austrian economist Friedrich Hayek has said the crucial factor in institutional design is the assumption of human nature. If we assume that human beings are born good, we may create a bad system. But if we assume that human beings are born imperfect, we may end up building an effective and good system.

The author is a senior editor with the Study Times under the Central Party School.

(China Daily 08/11/2010 page9)