Gov't officials to face closer scrutiny

Government officials in Chongqing Municipality face the sack if they violate the family planning policy and have "illegitimate" children.

Meanwhile, Central China's Hunan Province plans to disclose the employment details of government officials' family members for public scrutiny.

The two measures are aimed at making the activities of public servants, who enjoy many privileges, more transparent, and prevent them from abusing their power for personal gain.

Effective May 1, new rules in Chongqing will cover illegal births, including births before marriage, births in extramarital relations, and births not approved by the family planning policy.

According to the municipal regulation, officials having one or more illegitimate children could be demoted or dismissed from their posts.

The proposal was put up for public comment last September, and aroused heated discussion, particularly the issue of "extramarital children", as some people likened it to corruption more-so than a family planning issue.

"Having extramarital children is not simply against the family planning policy, but may involve the crime of bigamy," stated an opinion piece in China Youth Daily on September 5.

Also this week, Hunan provincial government said officials at county-level and above should disclose their spouse and child's employment details.

The new measures will be also be introduced in May, Xiaoxiang Morning Post reported Tuesday. But there were no more details on how the information will be made public.

"Though it seems that officials' privacy will be exposed to public, it can prevent them from abusing the public rights and put them under public inspection," Zhu Sibei, from Xinyang of Central China's Henan Province, was quoted by Shanghai-based Oriental Morning Post as saying.

However, it has been argued by some quarters that the measure does not go far enough to get to the core of the corruption problem.

China has waged a relentless war to weed out corruption, and the country has successfully prosecuted a large number of officials abusing their power.

Source: China Daily