China digs into officials' past

Chinese authorities have begun sifting through the profile archives of civil servants in an effort to crack down on fraud.

Experts say that forging profile information has created a breeding ground for corruption and those found guilty of faking personal information should be severely punished.

Local organization departments of the Communist Party of China (CPC) are examining the files of civil servants at all levels, the Xinhua News Agency reported on Thursday.

The report said that inspections would focus on civil servants' date of birth, work history, membership in the CPC and information on their family members.

According to reports released by inspection teams of the CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection last year, personal information fraud was found in 15 of 20 inspected provinces.

According to the Hebei government, 11 officials have been punished for forging their age, education background, and membership information in the CPC. One has been removed from his post for forging information. Their direct superiors were also punished.

Authorities in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region also said that a local official has been investigated for allegedly faking information. Insiders said that the official, who used to be the lowest-level official in another province, was transferred to Guangxi and straightly promoted three levels after altering his files.

"Forging profile archives is not uncommon. Some officials change their age, education background and length of service to get promoted, since there are strict standards in the promotion system for officials," He Wenkai, a deputy procurator-general of the Fangchenggang People's Procuratorate in Guangxi, told the Global Times.

He said that some alter files for retirement or job transfer purposes, while others would manipulate their information to become a civil servant.

Zhu Lijia, a professor of public management at the Chinese Academy of Governance, told the Global Times that archive fraud is getting serious, which was caused by the lax management on profile records and the opaque promotion system. "This is a cooperative act, which makes it a breeding ground for corruption," he said.

Zhu's opinion was echoed by Hu Xingdou, a professor at the Beijing Institute of Technology, who said that the archive management system should be more transparent.

"An online database should be established to allow for further public scrutiny," said Hu.

Wang Yali, a former deputy chief of the Communist Youth League Shijiazhuang Committee in Hebei Province, was arrested for forging documents to obtain government jobs and to claim inheritance that did not belong to her in March 2010.

Save for her gender, Wang allegedly faked all her personal information, including name, age, education and work experience.