Government and Policy
New rule issued on appointment of disgraced officials
By Xie Yu (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-04-02 06:49
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Beijing - The Communist Party of China (CPC) has published a regulation that sets out restrictions for the selection and promotion of officials who have been found guilty of misconduct.
According to the regulation, officials who had been transferred to other posts for misconduct would not be eligible for promotion within one year.
Those who had been dismissed or had been asked to resign would be barred from taking posts equivalent to their original ranks for one year, and could not be promoted for two years.
Demoted officials would also be barred from promotion for two years, the regulation said.
Meanwhile, relevant Party and government leaders who violate the regulation on the selection and appointment of officials would be held responsible. In serious cases, they could be dismissed from their posts, demoted or even face criminal charges.
"The regulation is key to preventing mistakes in the selection and promotion of officials, punishing illicit activities and rectifying misconduct, improving the work of officials' selection and promotion, and enhancing the competence of government and Party officials," said the General Office of the CPC Central Committee on Wednesday.
Mao Shoulong, public policy professor at Beijing-based Renmin University of China, said the new regulation has some binding force for appointing officials in the future, as it is clearer than former regulations.
"However, it still seemed to have missed the biggest concern of the public, which is 'why' punished officials are reappointed, rather than 'how long' they will be frozen from further promotion," Mao told China Daily.
"I think information disclosure is most important. The reason for reappointment should be open to the public, and the government or Party committee should give specific explanations to the public why they can trust the punished official again," he said.
The public and scholars have been questioning the punishment of officials in recent years, as some of them returned to leading roles shortly after resigning or being removed from their posts.
Li Changjiang, former minister of the nation's General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ), disappeared from the public eye after resigning in September 2008 for the "tainted milk scandal", which left six children dead and more than 300,000 suffering urinary tract problems.
But Li resurfaced as deputy head of a department leading China's war on porn in late 2009.
Bao Junkai, a former senior AQSIQ official, was promoted four months after he was punished for the same scandal in 2009.
China Daily
