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Anti-graft war needs punishment and laws
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The year 2013 will be remembered as a pivotal year of high-profile campaigns against corruption.
It started with the crusade against lavish official banquets and extravagance, and ended with the downfall of senior cadres like Li Dongsheng, ex-deputy minister at the Ministry of Public Security.
In retrospect, the war on corruption has now entered a phase in which not just flies are swatted, but tigers are also clubbed, as the slogan goes.
For a battle of attrition, the success of which depends on ridding the political system of its deep-seated flaws, ombudsmen are coming up with some imaginative ways to end the rot.
For instance, a manual on “official corruption risk assessment” was recently published by the research institute on crime and prevention at Nanjing University. It’s the first of its kind in China.
Risk assessment
The manual is a joint effort of the research institute and disciplinary authorities in Nanjing’s Gulou District as well as district prosecutors.
Officials who are given the printed manual are required to test themselves by answering 34 listed questions. Scores are not made public. The officials can keep the results secret, no matter how badly they score.
The questions mainly cover three dimensions: self-consciousness, self-evaluation of risks and self-control. Evaluation is the highlight, gauging officials on five criteria including psychological adaptation, mentality and sub-consciousness regarding corrupt behavior.
Questions include: “How desperate are you for a promotion?”, “How hungry are you for extra-marital affair?”, “Do you agree that you are entitled to better treatment because of your contributions?” and “Do I have a say in my office on certain matters?”
The questions are aimed at assessing the “criminal dynamics” of the tested parties. A high-risk score in five tested areas indicates that the individuals are on the verge of committing corrupt acts or have already been corrupted.
According to Feng Wenlan, director of the district disciplinary body, every district official will one day be issued a manual, so that they can frequently confront themselves with their tendency to engage in corruption and correct themselves to head off the risks.
“Although it cannot act as a fundamental deterrent against graft, it enables officials to realize their ‘risks,’ just as drivers are aware of the speed limit,” said Di Xiaohua, professor at the crime control and prevention institute.
Despite the official fanfare that greeted the manual, there are serious doubts of its effectiveness and, more important, its relevance.
After all, the accuracy of the test results relies solely on the integrity of officials. And since the results are highly subjective — meaning officials will likely be telling the truth selectively on issues they feel comfortable with — they have to be taken with a pinch of salt.
Silly questions
The manual’s biggest flaw, the unanswered question of potentially untruthful answers, has prompted a Nanjing Daily commentator to observe that anonymous online surveys and questionnaires are more capable of gathering more accurate information than the self-administered test.
For one thing, an anonymous online survey gives a more accurate picture of how officials think, the commentator said on December 31.
For another, it will be possible to detect and plug loopholes in the anti-graft system, he said, adding that the test scores should not fall off public radar as “silent truths.”
A good point, but again, how effective can it be? At any rate, questions like “How hungry are you for extra-marital affairs?” are a ludicrous attempt at letting the cat out of the bag, because nobody would be so silly as to be honest about keeping a mistress, despite promises of confidentiality.
Who knows if the so-called anonymous questionnaires are tagged by some invisible marks that will give the respondents away? It’s virtually certain that out of a cynical sense of self-protection, they will flatly answer “no” to evade trouble even if have wallowed in illicit sex.
Institutional curbs
Experts have described the manual as a mirror, one that will prod high-ranking officials surrounded by temptations to conduct self-examination and reflection.
But this argument is plausible only on the assumption that officials still have some integrity and will be vigilant against graft and sleaze.
That assumption can only be ensured by coercion — through institutional curbs on power and stern punishment of disciplinary violations — not expected of the bona fides of officials.
Nonetheless, all psychological tests, if they are to be effective, must be strictly interrogative instead of taking it easy on the test subjects. And the introduction of technology sometimes helps.
In Hefei, capital of Anhui Province, prosecutors successfully unraveled three corruption cases by using polygraph tests in mid November, according to the Hefei Evening News.
Under the heat of questions tossed at him, one official accused of graft, known only by the pseudonym Liu Hua, gradually lost his composure as each of his minute changes in pulse and brainwaves was recorded by the lie detector.
Liu finally buckled under pressure and confessed to taking bribes.
Because of their widely accepted 2 percent margin of error, lie detectors cannot replace human oversight and interrogation. But as important technical assistance, it might be included in regular assessment of officials’ risks of corruption.
But at the end of the day, it is the anti-graft system, laws and institutions that mostly need to be reformed and strengthened. That will be the linchpin of the war on graft in 2014.
As the war escalates, one cannot but wonder how many more tigers will be humbled and condemned to captivity this year? Let’s wait and see.
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