Officials told to declare property assets

By Qiu Quanlin (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-06-27 08:42

GUANGZHOU: Government officials in the southern province of Guangdong have been told to tell the public about their personal assets in a bid to minimize corruption.

"Government officials' corruption, which is almost always related to unidentified property, has been one of the top concerns of many citizens in recent years," said Huang Ting, chairman of the Guangdong provincial research society for economic reform.

"As a result, it is of great importance to make officials' assets public, to better prevent corruption and improve government transparency," Huang said at a forum concerned with the implementation of the Pearl River Delta regional reform and development plan, which was approved by the State Council late last year.

Huang's suggestion came after two senior officials - Chen Shaoji, the former chairman of the Guangdong provincial committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and Xu Zongheng, former mayor of Shenzhen - were investigated for alleged serious violations of disciplinary regulations.

Early media reports claimed both Chen and Xu had allegedly built up sizable portfolios of apparently illicit properties.

"The declaration would put officials' personal assets under better supervision," Huang said.

Early this year, the income of more than 1,000 officials in Altay prefecture in the north of the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region was made public for the first time.

The move required all county- and division-level officials in the prefecture to declare their assets once a year to improve transparency in government.

The central government and the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China had issued two regulations - in 1995 and 2001 - requiring officials to declare their income, but these were limited to officials' salary and subsidies, with the information unavailable to the public and the media.

"Guangdong, as one of the economic powerhouses of south China, should be an experimental area to put official's assets under the public's supervision," Huang said.

He added that the declaration system would not violate the sanctity of officials' personal information.

"If the properties, as with income, are from official channels, the declaration should not be a violation of officials' personal rights," Huang said.