The Procuratorial Daily, the official newspaper of the
Supreme People's Procuratorate (SPP), reported yesterday that a
trial scheme blacklisting those who offer bribes to officials will
be implemented nationwide in January.
The announcement to set up the "bribery?convictions
database" was made by Jia
Chunwang, Procurator-General of the SPP, at a national
procuratorial conference in Beijing on November 1.
Wang Zhenchuan, SPP vice-procurator-general, said the measure
would be important for "bringing all social forces into full play"
to prevent corruption, and would have a positive impact on healthy
economic and social development and strengthen legal
supervision.
Provincial-level procuratorates will make bribery files
available for public access by the end of the year and the system
will be linked nationally at the beginning of next year.
On the blacklist will be individuals and units who have offered
bribes since 1997 in sectors such as construction, finance,
education, medical and government procurement.
The SPP, in collaboration with other government departments,
introduced a pilot in some provinces last year and the results were
encouraging. In Sichuan, Jiangsu and Zhejiang, construction
contractors who were put on the blacklist were barred from bidding
for new projects.
According to the Criminal Law, those offering or accepting
bribes are subject to punishment: the maximum penalties are the
death sentence for a bribe-taker and a life term for people
offering bribes.
Chen Xingliang, a Peking
University law professor, said punishments for bribe-takers are
usually much heavier than for bribers because prosecutors depend on
cooperation from the latter in investigations.
He added that the new move can only play a supplementary role
because eradication of corruption depends on management reform in
many sectors, such as increasing openness and transparency of
economic activities.
In 2000, procuratorate bodies charged 1,298 people with offering
bribes while the number last year was 1,952.
Last week, the National People's Congress ratified the UN
Convention against Corruption, which deems offering bribes or
"undue advantages" to public officials criminal offences.
(China Daily November 3, 2005)