In a decision adopted at the Third Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee, it was emphasized that law enforcement departments and audit authorities' supervisory functions should be enhanced to ensure power is exerted transparently and in accordance with the law.

The CCDI expounded in a statement released last December that the audit supervision mainly targets how leading officials implement various economic decisions and policies. It should also uncover officials' power abuse during major construction projects and when public funds are involved, the statement said.

The decision also outlined reforms of the Party's discipline inspection system, changes that anti-corruption experts believe will help restrict power more effectively.

According to the document, the CPC Central Committee will appoint discipline inspectors directly to local discipline inspection commissions. In addition, major inspectors will be selected by a higher-level commission that will lead investigations into allegations of corrupt conduct involving local officials.

"In the past, investigations into allegations of corruption were often impeded by local authorities. They were able to interfere because a disciplinary inspection commission had to work under the leadership of the local Party committee at the same level. However, after the reforms, the commission will be able to reject intervention by the local Party committee and local government," said Ma Qingyu, a professor at the Chinese Academy of Governance.

The CCDI also attaches great importance to public and online supervision and requires officials to create more channels for whistleblowers and not to abuse their power to take revenge on anybody who reports them.

The Internet is an important platform for supervising and uncovering corrupt officials, the CCDI said, also pledging to conduct fast investigations into corruption cases reported online.

Local experiments

To effectively restrain leading officials' power, the CCDI suggests forming a mutual-supervision system within the leadership.

The head officials of Party and government departments at various levels should be given fixed work, power and responsibilities, the CCDI said in its statement in December 2013. "They should have limited power in intervening in other affairs and promoting subordinate officials."

So far, several provincial-level regions, including Shanxi, Guangdong, Liaoning, Anhui, Zhejiang, Yunnan and Chongqing, have launched pilot programs that restrict the power of their head officials, forbidding them from controlling financial resources or promotions of personnel.

Under the program, heads of local Party and government departments are restricted from taking charge of work on personnel, finance, construction, administrative licensing and procurement with public funds, according to a report by The Beijing Times in February.

That work will be assigned to officials who hold deputy positions in the department and the decision will no longer be made by one but a group of officials to help prevent corruption, the report said.

In Pan'an County of east China's Zhejiang Province, where the pilot program was first carried out in 2003, media reports have shown a remarkable reduction in the number of head officials of Party and government departments falling captive to corruption, according to a report by Xinhua News Agency.

The CCDI praised the practice. "The program aims to improve collective leadership and democratic decision making, as well as push for clean governance," it said in a statement released in early February.

However, Hu Xingdou, a political science professor at the Beijing Institute of Technology, warned that restrictions alone might not be enough to curb the problem.

"Limiting the power of head officials is becoming a trend, but if the power structure is not open and transparent, any official may become involved in corruption," Hu said.

Hu's opinion was supported by Zhu Lijia, a professor at the Chinese Academy of Governance in Beijing.

Zhu suggests broadcasting the entire procedure of how a government position is filled on television to ensure public supervision. He also calls for similar media exposure for bidding on government projects, such as the construction of highways or bridges.

According to the professor, it is of vital importance to institutionalize the supervisory role of legislatures and CPC congresses at various levels, which have the power to elect and appoint officials.

Peking University's Yan said that as the current rules for restricting leading officials' power only act at a local and individual level, efforts should be made to establish clearly defined regulations for this purpose in future reforms and to apply them nationwide.

yinpumin@bjreview.com