Use the right tool for the job

The government should bear in mind that the national real estate registration system to be established is to integrate information in the private sector to better protect citizens' legal property rights. The government should not use the system as a public tool to expose corrupt officials' real estate holdings or to fight corruption, says an article in 21st Century Business Herald. Excerpt:

The first joint conference of ministries on national real estate registration held recently in Beijing indicated China will establish such a national system in about three years.

Information about citizens' legal real estate is protected by law. The building registration system, in its nature, is an administrative action of the government.

It is the judicial authority and disciplinary department's duty to fight against corruption. The government should not rely on the national real estate registration system to do the job.

An officials' property information reporting system began functioning from the mid-1980s in the Chinese government. Serious graft and corrupt officials' huge illegal wealth accumulated over past years prove that the reporting system and inner supervision of the system do not work well.

The government should draw lessons from that failure and avoid using the registration system for the wrong purpose.

The main aim of the national real estate registration system is to make house transactions safer and more convenient, cut trade costs and reduce disputes. The government needs to pay more attention to ensuring the information registered in the system is accurate and updated in a timely manner.