Disclosure rule pushed to officials at lower levels

Declarations include information about income sources, family matters and company positions

A regulation requiring Party officials and public servants to declare their personal incomes and assets has been extended to lower-level officials, according to the disciplinary results published by the country's top anti-graft authority.

The regulation has been in place since 2010 but is receiving renewed attention. Anti-graft authorities in 11 regions have begun to apply it to lower-level individuals. The 11 areas are Anhui, Guizhou, Hainan, Qinghai, Jiangxi, Jiangsu, Guangxi, Gansu and Shaanxi provinces, along with Beijing and the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region.

Functionaries at the section level - next-to-lowest in the ranks of cadres in Party organs and government organizations - are now being required to follow the regulation, which stipulates that officials must report personal matters, including financial and family matters, once every year to personnel departments before Jan 31.

Some individuals have already been punished after being found to be dishonest in filing personal reports, although no specific punishments are listed in the regulation.

In January 1997, the general offices of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and State Council jointly issued the regulation requiring Party officials and government officials to report personal matters. Revisions were made in July 2010.

Wu Zihai, head of the Party committee of the technology section of Huaining county in Anhui province, received a warning after he failed to declare ownership of two apartments last year, the Central Commission of Discipline Inspection, the top watchdog, said last week.

Li Yuqing, chief of Huailai county in Zhangjiakou, Hebei province, was removed for dishonesty in declaring personal matters required by the regulation.

Those cases indicate the expanded reach of punishment for a false declaration.

"I never heard of any official ever being disciplined for dishonesty in filing the report," said Wang Zuo, deputy chief of the county. "I think he was in the cross hairs of the anti-corruption authority."

The Central Organization Department of the CPC, which oversees personnel matters of Party officials, focused renewed attention on the regulation at the end of last year and asked all Party and government organs to strictly abide by the rules.

The list of reportable personal matters includes income, marriage status, real estate, investment income and positions held in companies.

In addition, real estate investments and income derived from the investments of spouses and children must be declared.

Individuals are required to report the criminal records of their spouses and children, the marriage of a child to a foreign national or to a person from a special administrative region and employment of children working overseas.

zhang_yi@chinadaily.com.cn