Corrupt local officials in China are manipulating collective decision-making procedures for personal gain and to mask their activities, state media has warned.
A report published on Wednesday highlighted examples of behind-the-scenes manipulation where subordinates were told how to vote in advance, and of collusion between corrupt officials or sham public consultations.
“In recent years, to standardise collective decision-making, systematic procedures and requirements were introduced in many places, including mandating public hearings and transparency mechanisms for matters closely related to the public interest,” the report by Banyuetan, a magazine run by state news agency Xinhua, said.
“However, these rules and procedures are either ignored or deliberately bent in some individuals’ hands.”
As the country’s ongoing anti-corruption campaign tightened, some officials who feared they would be exposed for dominating the decision-making process had been disguising the process as a group decision, the report said.
It gave the example of an unnamed town Communist Party secretary, who had been disciplined for pushing through projects against the rules.
Disciplinary inspection officials told the magazine that after that, he began pushing through projects in which he had a personal interest by setting up sham meetings.
He told his subordinates of his intentions beforehand so they could appear to contribute to the discussions and create the appearance of due process.
In other places, corrupt officials formed interest-based cliques to ensure projects were approved.
The report highlighted a corruption case at a state-owned grain enterprise, where three out of the five leaders had “colluded closely to abuse their power for private benefit” and voted the same way to falsely approve rice and sorghum trade agreements.
The scheme allowed them to lend funds illicitly to a private company, each accepting 50,000 yuan (US$7,000) in bribes, the magazine said.
Other examples included bogus public consultations, where those appearing were either related to local officials or too frightened to give their opinion.
Others assigned projects to family members under the cover of helping procedures move along more quickly or by claiming because their superiors wanted it done a certain way.
Disciplinary officials and analysts told the magazine there needed to be more constraints on the collective decision-making process to eradicate this behaviour.
They said checks should be conducted on how top leaders exercised their power, especially during inspections; more emphasis placed on supervision and accountability systems; and greater efforts made to close some of the loopholes exposed by these cases.
They also said collective decision-making should be made more open and transparent, adding that big data analysis could help detect suspect cases, such as regular “unanimous approvals” for local projects.
The report added that a “sunshine” platform that made public the decision-making process and outcome of the discussions should be promoted unless there was a legal requirement for confidentiality. -- SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST
