Take as much time as you need to answer this question: When a civil servant is asked if he’d like to have an affair, or if she wants money or jewelry, could that be a red flag for graft?
Di Xiaohua, a professor at the Nanjing University Faculty of Law, thought an anti-graft manual with 34 questions like these could help civil servants in his district learn more about corruption and how to avoid it.
“They don’t understand what corruption is,” the professor told the South China Morning Post. “It takes time to become aware of what corrupt practices are. This manual will help them in that process.”
The publication is now circulating through the regional bureaucracy.
Internet users, meanwhile, have mocked the manual as being naive and simple-minded because of obvious answers, the SCMP said.
“I don’t have to worry [about being prosecuted] because I have excellent relations with the judiciary,” reads one statement.
“Do you have trust in the [Communist] Party’s and the government’s determination to fight graft?” is another question.
Professor Di said his manual is intended to motivate “soul-searching and is not an exam cadres have to take.”
He said the questions grew out of his interviews with hundreds of civil servants who have been convicted on graft charges.
The professor is now talking to publishers about circulating his manual publicly, the South China Morning Post said.
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Richard L. Cassin is the publisher and editor of the FCPA Blog. He can be contacted here.
1 Comment
Well, much depends on what is meant by 'corruption', and for whom. I can well imagine that many Chinese officials will be having trouble working out what the FCPA means by 'corrupt conduct', whereas they have no trouble with recognising what counts in Chinese law policy and custom as corrupt conduct for Chinese officials.
Then there is the whole other question of whether they would choose to comply with the applicable norms. This is not a problem unknown in the US, of course…
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