Society

Misconduct fears as 89 officials given new city govt roles

By YAN JIE (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-03-05 07:18

BEIJING: A northern Chinese city's massive appointment of officials has left the local government in hot water as netizens and media question potential misconduct in the move.

In late January, 89 officials were appointed to new posts in various government departments - at least three of which were newly established last year - according to a statement on the website of Handan city in Hebei province.

The appointments came as the city wound up a major revamp of local government organizations at the end of last year and shed four former departments.

China's central government, the State Council, launched a revamp of ministries and committees in March 2008. Regional governments are allowed to follow suit under their own schedules.

The institutional revamps are designed to reduce overlapping functions and positions at government departments.

But the statement triggered concern among netizens who said the local government might have breached rules by appointing too many deputy chiefs in a single department.

For instance, the number of deputy chiefs reached 11 in the department of human resources and social security after the appointments, according to a post published by an anonymous Internet user.

In China, the number of deputy officials at each political body is usually restricted, but the department is new so the limit has not yet been set.

Netizens even worried that the chances of corruption may rise proportionately, resulting from the boost in the ranks of officials.

"I hadn't anticipated such a negative response at all," an official surnamed Wang, who has direct knowledge of the appointments, told China Daily on Thursday.

The excessive appointment of deputies is due to the latest departmental revamp in Handan, Wang explained.

The 11 deputy chiefs at the department got their posts after a merger of two former government organizations, instead of being appointed through the normal route, for which more administrative approvals would be required, said Lou Cunjiang, another official in charge of the appointments.

In addition, five of them do not count towards the allocated number of senior officials for the department for administrative reasons, according to Lou.

However, Wang admitted that even the other six deputy chiefs are more than what is needed for the new department.

The government is aware of the excess of deputies and is drawing up plans to reduce the numbers, said Wang.

"Now we need places to put the redundant officials from the slashed departments."

Lately, appointments and promotions of government employees have been closely watched.

In early February, six government employees as young as 23 who were slated for promotions in northern Shandong province hit the spotlight when the public thought they were unqualified for senior-level posts because of shortfalls in work experience.

The local government in Shandong argued that it had not violated any rules regulating promotions and maintained the decisions despite the disputes.

"We named too many officials at the same time," said Wang. And the city should have been aware of the timing of the appointments. "If only we had made some explanations beforehand," he added.

Xinhua contributed to the story