Fighting graft in the system: China's discipline inspectors

The Central Commision for Discipline Inspection, the Communist Party of China's internal supervision system regarded as a sword of Damocles hanging over those in power, is sharpening its blade.

Corruption cases during its first round of inspections have been uncovered and posted on the website of China's anti-graft authority.

Its inspectors uncovered bribes for promotions, land sales and project contracts, and chaotic management of research funds, within government offices and state-owned enterprises in 11 provinces and cities, incluing Beijing, Tianjin, Liaoning, Shandong and Henan.

Details of cases are still to be made public.

Who are they?

Professor Xie Chuntao of the Party School of the Central Committee of the CPC, says most members of the inspection teams are experienced high-level officials who are expert at seeing through procedural complexities.

They need to be, as they are often dealing with top local leaders, he says.

According to the website of the CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, the head of each team should be a provincial-level cadre under the age of 70.

To avoid corruption among the inspectors themselves, a team head is assigned for each separate operation. Their authorization expires with the end of each operation.

Wang Qishan, chief of the commission, says: "The more specific the responsibilities, the more effective the work. The inspections focus on uncovering misconduct and imposing penalties."

How do they work?

Questioning of individual officials is the most common way of uncovering suspected legal and disciplinary violations.

Qi Peiwen, former head of the No 2 inspection team, reportedly said that when it interviews provincial-level officials, it inquires about their close relatives and their jobs and the incomes of their children, as well as asking about their own work duties.

Interviews with departmental bureau-level officials usually focus more on their comments to the provincial Party Committee and provincial-level officials, Qi says.

Sometimes they talk to retired officials and business leaders, and local People's Congress and CPPCC delegates, to find out more.

They have no set time or number of interviews, which can run from 10 minutes to several hours. Inspectors can talk to up to 300 people in the course of an average inspection, China Economic Weekly reported.

Tip-offs via public hotlines and letters also play a part.

Ji Houqin, an official in Zhangjiajie City, Hunan Province, told local media that he had written several letters to the inspection team to report the misconduct of colleagues during 2012 and 2013.

"I called the inspection team later and they promised me the head would read my report."

The obstacles

One inspection team found that government officials in Henan had accepted bribes for land sales and project contracts, hired cronies and bribed their way to promotions.

But digging up details of such misconduct has never been easy.

An inspection team mainly examines the conduct of influential high-level officials in a given area. Sometimes, the most corrupt hold the most powerful positions, which can pose serious obstacles to an investigation, Qi Peiwen says.

Some local governments have developed their own strategies for dealing with inspection teams by offering them generous hospitality and being overly cooperative, while obscuring their misdemeanors.

Three months ago, when inspection team No 8 went to Henan province, local government officers were accused of trying to blockade their hotel.

Groups of officials guarded the entrance, preventing them from leaving.

However, the inspections are yielding positive results.

Last year, 10 teams of inspectors visited 20 provincial governments, state-owned enterprises and public institutions, and came back with important information that helped bring down various corrupt officials.

"The anti-corruption fight remains grave and complicated," says Wang the anti-graft chief.

But he insists that discipline inspections are a "health check" on the body of the CPC, adding that no individual or area is exempt from scrutiny.

www.icrosschina.com

(China Daily Africa Weekly 08/01/2014 page5)