Guangdong launches pilot asset declaration program

Guangdong Province has launched a pilot official asset-declaration program in a bid to fight corruption, said a top provincial discipline inspector, according to a Nanfang Daily report Tuesday.

The program is being piloted in the northern part of Guangdong and the Pearl River Delta, where one county and one district in both areas will be chosen to undergo the declaration process, according to Huang Xianyao, Party secretary of the Guangdong Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection. Local government officials in the chosen areas have to declare their family's assets and the information will be made public, he told the paper.

The pilot plan, first proposed at Guangdong's provincial Party congress in May, will be completed by the end of 2014 and expanded to other parts of the province, according to Huang. Starting from 2013, officials under inspection will have to submit regular work reports to discipline authorities, in which they are requested to write about their personal and family assets, their investments or business projects and how they have been implementing clean governance.

Guangdong set up China's first anti-corruption office in the Hengqin new area of Zhuhai on September 8. Unlike previous anti-corruption work, which required joint efforts from different parties, the office integrates the responsibilities of discipline inspectors, prosecutors and auditors to fight graft in a comprehensive fashion. An anti-corruption system had been established in the province by October this year, with corruption prevention bureaus launched at both the provincial level and in all 21 cities.

Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, highlighted anti-corruption as the Party's priority, in two meetings attended by members of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee in November.

"The new leadership has shown great determination in fighting against graft within the Party," said Huang.