Chinese authorities have decided to conduct a pilot program in Beijing, North China's Shanxi and East China's Zhejiang provinces as part of efforts to make the current supervision system more efficient, the Xinhua News Agency reported late Monday.
The central government will establish supervision committees in Beijing, Shanxi and Zhejiang as a pilot program for a reform in the current national supervision system, Xinhua reported, citing a statement released by the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) on its official website.
"Beijing, Zhejiang and Shanxi are respectively the national political center, developed areas in eastern and mid-western China. Pilot program in these areas exerts a greater influence that will help to conduct a nationwide reform," Zhuang Deshui, deputy director of the Research Center for Government Integrity Building at Peking University, told the Global Times on Tuesday.
Zhuang said that the choice of Shanxi, where the problem of corruption was very serious before the 18th CPC Central Committee, represented the central government's recognition of the province's anti-corruption work in the past several years.
The statement said that the aim for deepened reform of the current supervision system is to build a national anti-graft organ under the leadership of the Party, adding that authorities will mobilize more anti-corruption resources and build a system that ensures officials dare not, will not and cannot be corrupt.
Zhang Xixian, a professor at the Party School of the CPC Central Committee, told the Global Times that, after the reform, the national supervision system will cover all government organs and civil servants, CPC members or not.
"The discipline inspection commissions only manage Party members while the new supervision committee covers all civil servants," Zhang said, adding that it was a signal that the country is strengthening supervision on public authority.
According to Zhuang, supervision committees at different levels will share offices and working staff with the discipline inspection commissions, giving the staff dual identities to deal with different cases and objects.
However, Zhuang noted that legal foundation is needed to legitimize the committee and avoid function conflicts between the committee and other bureaus including the public security bureaus and the procuratorates.
According to the statement, a work leading group for deepened reform on the supervision system will be set up by the CPC Central Committee to guide and coordinate the pilot program. Work leading groups in related regions should also be established, with the local Party chief as group leaders.
