Rules on personal info tightened for officials

Officials are facing stricter rules for their declarations of personal information that must be provided to the Communist Party of China.

According to revised regulations that were issued recently, officials at deputy county level or above are required to report information including their marital status, overseas travel, criminal records, wages and other earnings, family properties, stocks, insurance and other investments.

The rules were issued by the General Office of the CPC Central Committee and the General Office of the State Council as part of an ongoing effort to curb corruption.

The revised rules specify how individual reports will be verified, including the methodology and sampling rate for random checks. The rate for random verification has been increased to 1 in 10.

Punishments are specified for making false declarations and for deliberate concealment of personal information.

The personal information declarations are an important tool for assessing loyalty to the Party and a person's commitment to the CPC code of conduct, and should be linked to job promotions, the Organization Department of the Central Committee of the CPC said in a statement.

More than 9,100 officials have been passed over for promotion after they were found to have concealed personal information, while 124,800 have been punished for making false declarations. Specifying the consequences of false declarations and concealment represents a clear warning to officials and is crucial for the mechanism to work well, the statement said.

It called on CPC commit-tees at various levels to strictly implement the rules and treat the process as part of an important political mission to strengthen self-governance within the Party.

In addition, it urged leading officials to be loyal and honest, and to willingly put themselves under organizational supervision.