China

'Traffic light' system to keep tabs on officials

(China Daily)
Updated: 2011-01-17 08:03

Workloads monitored by the Party to improve efficiency, prevent graft

BEIJING - A new software program is encouraging government officials in East China's Jiangsu province to work hard and conduct themselves professionally.

If an official in the Nanjing urban planning bureau has not finished a case within 20 days, monitoring software will signal a warning and a yellow light will start to flash on the departmental system.

"If an official violates protocol in dealing with a case, a red light will flicker," said Ding Haiyang, head of the bureau's discipline department.

The system is designed to allow the public to follow the process online, learn of results on the bureau's website and submit complaints, Ding said.

"Since the system was installed, every official has done his best to finish his work on schedule and hand it over to colleagues for the next stage of the procedure. No one wants to be responsible for delaying a case and causing the yellow light to flicker," Ding said.

The discipline department intends to use the system to monitor the work of all officials.

Fifty-two provincial government departments, 13 city governments and 106 county departments in Jiangsu are now linked to the monitoring system.

Since it was put in operation in January 2010, the system has issued about 3,200 yellow warning lights and 22,400 red ones throughout the province, the provincial discipline agency said.

"Transparency in government and effective supervision are the best ways to prevent corruption. The new computer system helps us supervise administrative power and stamp out graft at its source," said Xie Chang, deputy secretary of the provincial commission for discipline inspection.

At a plenary session that ended last week, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) of the Communist Party of China (CPC) vowed to minimize loopholes and improve transparency in government work, especially through the use of new technology.

The move follows consultations with experts, who said that China's leadership has realized the pivotal role that information technology can play in improving governance and fighting corruption.

While the CPC has traditionally sought to fight corruption through education and punishment, it is now more focused on pursuing the same end through the use of new technology to improve its administrative and supervisory systems, said Dai Yanjun, an expert from the Party School of the CPC Central Committee.

"Information technology, including the Internet, is providing a more effective tool of supervision," he said.

As China's netizens reached 450 million last year, 35 percent of the total population, the Internet became a major platform, enabling people to monitor the behavior of officials and alert their supervisors to inappropriate or corrupt behavior.

In November 2010, a netizen in Hangzhou, eastern Zhejiang province, posted details of bribery involving a medical salesman, listing hospital, doctors and other information, which triggered a full-scale investigation into bribery at hospitals.

Previously, in 2009 the CCDI and the Ministry of Supervision set up a website for informing against corrupt officials.

"Through the website, the number of tips and complaints against corrupt officials increased notably in 2010," said Gan Yisheng, deputy secretary of the CCDI.

Xinhua