Roundup: Prevention Key to Corruption Control

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Friday, April 12, 2002

Roundup: Prevention Key to Corruption Control

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Public administration experts have attributed China's recent achievements in combating corruption to the effective precautionary measures it has taken in lawmaking, government administration and a wide range of social and economic activities.

China's civil servants have received five pay hikes since 1989, which were designed to stimulate domestic demand, improve the income level of government employees and discourage them from taking bribes or pocketing public money, Wang Shaoguang, a professor from the Chinese University of Hong Kong, told an ongoing international conference on economic reforms and good governance Friday.

Some scholars even suggested a considerable amount be paid to " clean" government employees upon retirement, in an effort to keep them from corruption.

In another development, the Chinese government has intensified personnel reforms by increasing transparency in the recruitment and promotion of government employees.

The ongoing administrative reform, which aims to remove unnecessary government intervention in corporate behavior by simplifying the traditional application-and-approval procedures for businesses, is also conducive to corruption prevention and control, Wang said.

China's central and local governments have simplified administrative procedures by at least 30 percent over the past year. In some provinces, such procedures have been cut by over 60 percent.

Earlier this year, the Chinese capital Beijing decided to wipe out another 30 percent of administrative procedures, following last year's reduction of 40 percent.

The people's procuratorates also made marked progress in preventing career-related crimes, by helping set up 1,300 crime- prevention organizations and carrying out crime prevention activities in major construction projects in the communications, energy and water conservancy sectors to avoid financial drains.

As host for the 2008 Olympic Games, Beijing has set up a supervisory committee to clamp down on corruption, guarantee quality of all Olympic projects and ensure a "clean Olympiad".

"All preparatory work will be made public on the website for public supervision," said Mayor Liu Qi.

The fight against corruption has to be backed by a sound legal system, said Vice-President Liu Jiachen of the Supreme People's Court, as he briefed the audience on China's anti-corruption strategy.

China took up legal devices to address corruption in 1979, when its top legislature, the National People's Congress (NPC), defined power abuse, bribery and embezzlement as crimes in the country's criminal law.

Further amendments were made to the criminal law in the 1990s to stress anti-corruption in China's market economy, and anti- corruption provisions were also included in laws and regulations governing corporate governance, accounting, auditing and public servants.

From 1992 to last year, 239,710 corruption cases have come before Chinese courts and 173,974 people, including some high- ranking officials, have been convicted and sentenced.

In the post-WTO scenario, China needs to maintain its efforts to build up a sound legal system and improve transparency in government work so as to conform to WTO rules, said Liu Jiachen.

"Because transparency is key to good governance, corruption control and financial stability," said Daniel Kaufmann, a World Bank expert.

The conference, which closed here Friday, drew over 100 officials, business representatives and scholars from China and international organizations including the United Nations Development Program, the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, the Center for International Private Enterprises and some corruption control organizations.

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