Massive overhaul

‘Commission will enhance party’s leadership in anti-graft drive’

China’s sweeping government reshuffle to boost oversight on corruption.

BEIJING: Since late 2012, when Xi Jinping became general secretary of the CPC Central Committee and head of the military, the fight against corruption has been a top priority nationwide and a crushing momentum has been formed against graft.

When he delivered a report to the 19th CPC National Congress in October, Xi said new supervisory commissions would be established at different levels across the country to provide indepth inspections of all public servants.

According to Mao Mingxiu, deputy director of the Shangcheng supervisory commission, the main reason for establishing the commissions – which will share offices and staff members with CPC disciplinary inspectors – was to enhance the party’s unified leadership over anticorruption campaigns and cover all State functionaries.

The commissions will integrate the existing supervisory, corruption prevention and control agencies within local governments and procuratorates to form a centralised, unified force to combat graft.

“As a unified antigraft agency under the Party’s leadership, the supervisory commission system is an institutional invention incorporating China’s reality and international practice,” Ma said.

“It pools supervisory powers that used to be divided, and forms a centralised, unified and efficient State supervision system.”

Gao Bo, a senior official with the CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, said that when all the supervision commissions are in place, every public servant will come under effective surveillance. He added that such an extensive network “expands inspection to all public servants, leaves no loopholes and serves as a powerful deterrent against corruption”.

Zhejiang province has also achieved great progress in curbing corruption.

“Under the reform, we’ve established a unified and authoritative antigraft command and decision making system, which will enable us to centralise resources and greatly improve work efficiency,” said Liu Jianchao, head of the Zhejiang Provincial Supervisory Commission.

According to Liu Jianchao, under the new commissions, by December, the number of officials and public servants under supervision rose from 383,000 to 700,000.

Between January and October, inspectors in Zhejiang received more than 500 tips related to graft, a rise of 77% from the same period in 2016.

The reform not only gives graftbusters more powers, but also regulates that power. The draft supervision law introduces a new detention system.