Guangdong requires asset info

Three regions in Guangdong Province have been selected as a pilot project requiring Party and government officials to report and disclose their assets, as the province implements its anti-graft plan.

Hengqin New District of Zhuhai, Nansha New District of Guangzhou, and Shixing county of Shaoguan, became the first areas in Guangdong Province to implement the pilot program, which will require Party and government officials to disclose their assets, "within a certain scope".

This is also an important part of the province's five-year Party disciplinary plan, reported the China Business Journal on Saturday.

Authorities of all three locales were unreachable for comment on Sunday.

Hengqin and Nansha are new districts which enjoy national economic preferential policies aimed at boosting cooperative development between Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao, while Shixing is a provincial poverty-stricken county.

The three areas already have some asset-disclosure policies, and are considered to have a better foundation for implementing the pilot project.

Guangdong province is considered a pioneer in anti-graft practices through institutional design.

Five Guangdong officials had been dismissed and investigated in the past 40 days, echoing the anti-corruption storm since the 18th CPC National Congress. At least three of them were accused of illegally obtaining a huge number of assets and bribe-taking.

Requiring party and government officials to report and disclose their assets has become a constant social request as it is seen as a means to curb corruption. However, curbing graft cannot rely solely on a single policy, say experts.

Xu Xianglin, professor of the School of Government with Peking University, told the Global Times Sunday that asset disclosure requires an institutional guarantee and detailed practicality. It is essential to set up baselines on the subjects, conditions and scopes of the disclosure, as well as strong inspection, investigation and judicial measures to verify the validity of the published information.

"It would be best to disclose assets of officials who are newly appointed, especially those high-level, competitive posts," said Xu.

Xu also said that measures should also be taken to protect necessary privacy of the officials and their families.

According to Guangdong's Five-Year plan, the pilot programs will be completed and evaluated before 2014.

Internal annual asset reports of lower level officials have been required by the State Council since 2010, but the information is not released to the public.