Competence to weigh heavy in promotions

The General Office of the Communist Party of China Central Committee published a guideline on Sunday to promote competent officials, encourage their initiative and improve their welfare.

The central leadership pledged to promote loyal, responsible and competent officials, the guideline said.

It instructed Party institutions and governments to clarify their standards for assessing officials’ performance, particularly on how they deliver the policies made by the CPC Central Committee.

The assessing system should help prevent officials from setting unrealistic targets and curb bureaucracy, the document said.

The CPC Central Committee emphasized that officials will be allowed to make mistakes when they try to push forward reforms and test new policies.

Officials who make mistakes due to a lack of experience or precedents at work are different from those who break Party rules and law, the document said.

Those who make mistakes when trying to do a better job are different from those breaking rules to seek personal gain, it said.

Party committees, disciplinary inspection agencies and organization departments were told to carefully draw the line and severely punish those who intentionally defame officials.

Measures will be introduced to improve training and ensure the proper welfare of officials, such as allowances for difficult working conditions, healthcare services and vacations.

Officials who work in remote and less-developed areas and for poverty-alleviation programs will be given more support and preference.

Zhan Zhongle, a professor of constitutional and administrative law at Peking University, said the guideline clearly set the Party’s and government’s standards for cultivating officials.

“Officials should dare to take their responsibilities and take action for the country and the people amid the reform and opening-up process,” he said, adding that the Party and governments should offer officials strong support to this end.

He also said officials should not be afraid of making mistakes as long as it is trying to implement reform. He said they will grow even more quickly after gaining experience from mistakes.