Society

Officials' numbers made public in N China province

By Lan Tian and Sun Ruisheng (China Daily)
Updated: 2011-03-23 07:56

TAIYUAN - Disciplinary authorities in North China's Shanxi province published the mobile phone numbers and e-mail addresses of 260 senior officials in local newspapers to increase public supervision during the ongoing elections.

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But many of the published numbers could not be connected, leading to doubts of the measure's effectiveness.

The numbers released on Monday include contact information for local Communist Party of China discipline inspection commission secretaries and organization department directors at city, county and district levels.

The move, launched by the province's Party discipline inspection commission and the provincial Party committee's organization department, is the first such effort in the country.

An official from the organization department of the provincial Party committee, who refused to be named, told China Daily that the aim is to "strengthen discipline surveillance and smooth the channels for the public to report discipline violation problems concerning elections".

He said the move is one of the 12 measures passed by the provincial Party committee to "ensure a good atmosphere for selection and appointment of officials", which are under way at various levels of the Party committee, government, people's congress or political consultative conference in the province.

The other measures include setting up a monitoring system and organizing a group of inspectors for supervising the selections and appointments.

Shanxi's move caught the attention of nationwide media. Some questioned the authenticity of the released phone numbers.

A total of 145 mobile phone holders, or about 55 percent of the officials involved, could not be reached through the numbers, which were either out of service, powered off or wrong, according to a report of Guangzhou-based Southern Metropolis Daily on Tuesday.

Among the calls made randomly by the Beijing News to 33 published numbers, only 10 were successful. Sixteen rang with no answer, four were busy and three went to powered-off phones, according to the Beijing News on Tuesday.

A China Daily reporter randomly called 12 of the 260 officials and four picked up the phone.

"I support the provincial authority's move because I think it will have a deterrent effect on possible disciplinary offences," Niu Quanmin, secretary of Zezhou county's Party discipline inspection commission, told China Daily.

Niu said he has been using the present mobile phone number for 10 years.

"Apart from the dozens of calls from journalists like you enquiring about the new move, I haven't received any local resident's call or e-mail reporting a violation of discipline concerning the appointment and selection of officials," he said.

But some officials said the publishing of phone numbers affected their daily work.

"Since Monday, I have received no less than 20 telemarketing calls from salesmen across the country, trying to sell me apartments or factory machines, which disrupted my work," said Yan Shenghua, secretary of Yingze district's Party discipline commission in provincial capital Taiyuan.

Coal-rich Shanxi province has stepped up discipline inspection and anti-graft efforts in recent years.

In February, former Taiyuan mayor Zhang Bingsheng was removed from his post after he used text messages to win election votes, which violated election rules, according to a report from Oriental Outlook magazine, which is run by Xinhua News Agency.