Government officials who fail to account for dubious assets in their possession will face tougher punishment, under a draft amendment to the criminal law that lawmakers began to discuss yesterday.
The maximum jail term for public officials who cannot explain the source of unreasonably large amounts of assets they hold will be doubled from five years to 10 years - if the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, China's top legislature, approves the draft amendment during its current five-day session.
The draft also stipulates that retired government officials and relatives and close friends of an official will be subject to criminal penalties if they take advantage of the official's positions to obtain bribes or make profits, Xinhua reported yesterday.
The existing law on unaccountable assets of public officials, which was enacted 20 years ago, only affects the incumbent official.
It was 'very necessary' to impose heavier penalties on officials abusing their power for personal gain, to up the ante in the anti-corruption drive, Li Shishi , director of the NPC Standing Committee's Legal Affairs Commission, was quoted as saying at yesterday's meeting.
But experts in corruption law argue that although the amendment is a sign of progress on what is a nearly dysfunctional law, the improvement is too small to be effective.
'The current law has degenerated into a cushion for corrupt officials,' said Ren Jianming , director of Tsinghua University's clean governance programme.
