Pension for clean governance?廉政年金 (Lian zheng nian jin)

The reform policies proposed by the State Council's Development Research Center before the Third Plenary Session of the 18th Communist Party of China Central Committee cover a wide-range of reform areas, of which a proposed clean governance allowance plan has sparked wide discussions.

In a bid to prevent corruption among government officials, the plan proposes to establish a pension system for clean governance. Officials will only be able to claim this money upon retiring if they have no corruption record throughout their working years.

But some experts doubt the effectiveness of such a system, because if the allowance is too high, it will only aggravate the country's financial burdens and generate a public outcry; while if the money is not considerable, it will not act as a counterbalance and nip any corruption in the bud.

Also, some Internet users have claimed that such an allowance is simply a new way to increase public officials' welfare. Civil servants already enjoy better pensions, health and welfare systems, as well as better social status even though their salaries are not great. No wonder some argue that a clean governance pension would only be a new form of privilege for officials.

Some regions such as Hong Kong and countries such as Singapore already offer pensions for clean governance, but these have been accompanied by comprehensive mechanisms against corruption. Implementing a clean governance pension nationwide will only be effective if there are also reforms to ensure the disclosure of officials' personal properties, on the selection policies of officials, their welfare systems and a series of campaigns to crackdown on corruption.

(China Daily 11/01/2013 page9)