China has issued a new set of regulations on the assessment of government employees, which gives the public the chance to have their say about the performance of civil servants.

The regulations, based on the country's first Civil Servant Law which took effect on Jan. 1 of last year, say that opinion polls may be used to evaluate high-ranking civil servants if necessary.

Civil servants will be given four grades -- excellent, competent, satisfactory and incompetent.

Those who are graded "incompetent" for two years in a row will be removed from their posts, according to the regulations.

The list of those who are graded "excellent" should be made known to the public.

Experts say it is the first time a dose of public supervision has been injected into the civil servant appraisal system, which may make results fairer.

The new regulations were co-enacted by the Organization Department of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and the Ministry of Personnel to replace the temporary regulations issued in 1994.

More than 16,000 civil servants were dismissed between 1996 and 2003.

Statistics show that there were more than 6 million civil servants working in governments and public-funded organizations across the country at the end of 2005.

Source: Xinhua