By Zhao Yusha in Global Times, June 13, 2017 at 22:53:39 hrs
Government in North China’s Tianjin has asked all employees from local public sectors, including government departments and State-owned enterprises and affiliated organizations, to report any overseas trips, a sign of tightening regulations on government workers amid the ongoing anti-graft drive.
It also stipulates that employees can only go abroad once a year in an effort to implement a more detailed and strict regulation on staff from public institutions going abroad.
The report said that the restrictions were expanded to all employees at the end of 2016 since some institutions and government departments failed to fully carry out a previous restriction that only included officials above a certain level.
According to a notice issued by the Tianjin Municipal Science and Technology Commission in December 2016, ordinary employees can only go abroad once a year for personal reasons, and cannot stay overseas for more than 15 days.
“These restrictions are aimed at preventing corrupt officials from escaping,” said Zhu Lijia, a professor of public management at the Chinese Academy of Governance, adding that it could be an effective way to crack down on corruption.
Aside from Tianjin, other cities have also issued strict regulations on overseas travel for public servants. The Beijing High People’s Court said that officials above division level are banned from going abroad for personal reasons, and no more than 20 percent of officials lower than division level are allowed to go abroad for private business in the same year, the Beijing Youth Daily reported in June.
“Moreover, people who work for public institutions are more likely to reveal secrets to people from other countries. They usually have less privacy due to their occupation, and it is reasonable to require them to report it if they go abroad,” Zhu said.
Tightening controls on overseas travel for government employees serve to regulate these people ahead of the 19th National Congress, which will be held in the latter half of 2017, Zhu said.
A deputy principal from a primary school in Southwest China’s Chongqing Municipality told the Global Times that she has to ask for permission from the local education bureau when applying for a passport, and that she must hand in her passport to her school as soon as she returns from a trip.
Impinging on lives
Some observers said that if local government rules for public servants are perceived as being too strict that they impinge on employees’ lives, it may dissuade people from pursuing a civil service career, especially at the grass-roots level.
“Unlike local governments, the central government has not carried out such strict regulation on officials going abroad for personal reasons, and the existing regulations only apply to senior officials,” Zhu said.
Zhu noted that some local governments have expanded their restrictions to all employees from public sectors to avoid any negligence over ordinary employees. “Current regulations could help them simply impose uniformity in all cases,” he said.
An employee from the Tianjin government, who asked for anonymity, told the Global Times on Tuesday that it is understandable for the government to restrict officials from important government sectors from going abroad, but imposing such strict controls on ordinary employees is too much.
“Some of my colleagues’ children are studying abroad and they have to visit them frequently,” said the employee.
Asking employees to report overseas travel is reasonable, but restricting their stay in foreign countries is going too far, said Xu Hongcai, director of the Department of Information under the China Center for International Economic Exchanges.
Xu added that local governments should loosen regulations and make life more convenient for government employees, as these rules have already caused disruption to staff, and may discourage those who want to work for these institutions. http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1051525.shtml
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