An open road to gov't leadership ( 2003-08-14 07:21) (China Daily)
Among the newly promoted government officials last year, 59.8 per cent, or
180,000, got their positions via a system of open competition, according to the
Ministry of Personnel.
Since 1998 when the system was introduced, about 353,000 people have stood
out and moved ahead courtesy of the process.
It is, no doubt, an inspiring message -- especially at a time when corruption
still runs rampant.
Under the system, government positions and requirements needed to fulfill
them are made public, and applicants have to take part in examinations and
undergo comprehensive evaluation by the public, their peers and organization
departments.
Recruitment in such a transparent way helps ensure that the top applicants
are chosen and most importantly, it helps stamp out nepotism from officials in
higher-echelons.
The older system leads to many officials becoming the lap dogs of their
superiors, instead of performing their duties for the public. It also explains
why some corrupt officials are able to climb even higher.
One of the latest examples is Wang Huaizhong. He climbed smoothly through the
ranks from a small city to become the vice-governor of Anhui Province, thanks to
his superiors before he was found having committed corruption and had a bad
reputation among the local people in Fuyang, where he worked before the
promotion.
Without a democratic procedure and supervision, it is hard to guarantee the
justice in official selection and promotion processes.
Worse, when the right to decide who will move up is dominated by a few
higher-ranking officials and when the whole procedure is carried out
clandestinely, there might be temptation for people to buy their way up the
ladder.
Past experience shows the process of choosing and promoting government
officials is vulnerable to corruption. Quite a number of cases have been exposed
in which higher-level officials have taken bribes and wielded their influence in
the process.
The well-intentioned system, however, is far from being perfect and some
central government departments have so far failed to introduce it.
Also, it has not been taken on board uniformly among the provinces that have
accepted it.
But the Personnel Ministry is drafting a special document to make it an
air-tight procedure.