County officials in love lives probe
Source: Xinhua |
July 26, 2010, Monday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
THE love lives of local officials in an east China county are to be exposed under new rules requiring them to meet "morality" standards.
Not only could extramarital affairs ruin their careers - they will also find their relations with their parents, children and neighbors under scrutiny.
The new standards have been imposed on 96 local government and Communist Party of China officials in Shuyang County, Jiangsu Province. Their records of marital fidelity, filial piety, parenting and good neighborliness will be included in their performance assessments.
Personal morality would be assessed through interviews, home visits, investigations and public submissions, said Wang Xiaodong, head of Shuyang's CPC organization department. Any evidence of immoral conduct would earn them demerit points, Wang said.
Officials should set moral examples and a failure to do so could bring the whole system of local government into disrepute, said Jiang Jianming, Shuyang Party chief.
Other local administrations, such as Xinle City, in north China's Hebei Province, already include marital relations when assessing the performance of officials.
"I think such regulations are necessary," said Tian Xianfeng, Shuyang's police chief. "If we can find signs of corruption through routine checks, we can deal with them as early as possible."
However, professor He Bing, of China University of Political Science and Law, said the new rules were of little practical value. A better way to fight corruption would be more stringent efforts to supervise the use of public funds and requirements for officials to report their personal declarable assets, he said.
Excessive investigations into the marital affairs of officials would possibly be an infringement of privacy.
But Tian Xiangbo, a researcher with Hunan University's Research Center for Clean Governance, said: "The limits of officials' privacy should not be the same as that of ordinary people. Officials are obliged to disclose some of their personal affairs for the sake of the public interest."
However, Tian called for discretion regarding marriage problems, as marital failure was not necessarily an indicator of professional competence.
Not only could extramarital affairs ruin their careers - they will also find their relations with their parents, children and neighbors under scrutiny.
The new standards have been imposed on 96 local government and Communist Party of China officials in Shuyang County, Jiangsu Province. Their records of marital fidelity, filial piety, parenting and good neighborliness will be included in their performance assessments.
Personal morality would be assessed through interviews, home visits, investigations and public submissions, said Wang Xiaodong, head of Shuyang's CPC organization department. Any evidence of immoral conduct would earn them demerit points, Wang said.
Officials should set moral examples and a failure to do so could bring the whole system of local government into disrepute, said Jiang Jianming, Shuyang Party chief.
Other local administrations, such as Xinle City, in north China's Hebei Province, already include marital relations when assessing the performance of officials.
"I think such regulations are necessary," said Tian Xianfeng, Shuyang's police chief. "If we can find signs of corruption through routine checks, we can deal with them as early as possible."
However, professor He Bing, of China University of Political Science and Law, said the new rules were of little practical value. A better way to fight corruption would be more stringent efforts to supervise the use of public funds and requirements for officials to report their personal declarable assets, he said.
Excessive investigations into the marital affairs of officials would possibly be an infringement of privacy.
But Tian Xiangbo, a researcher with Hunan University's Research Center for Clean Governance, said: "The limits of officials' privacy should not be the same as that of ordinary people. Officials are obliged to disclose some of their personal affairs for the sake of the public interest."
However, Tian called for discretion regarding marriage problems, as marital failure was not necessarily an indicator of professional competence.
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