Beijing's Public Servants Told to Exit Social Organizations

According to Beijing's Civil Affairs Bureau, public servants working in the capital will be required to leave any positions they might hold within the city's "social organizations" over the coming five years.

The new rule will apply to those officials working in either Communist Party departments or in government who also maintain positions with any of the vast array of business associations, social welfare organizations or charities that exist in the capital.

Controls will be put in place to prevent presidents or general secretaries of any newly established social organizations from being drawn from the ranks of public servants.

"Currently, there are still some CPC or government officials holding concurrent posts as president or general secretary of social organizations," according to Li Xinjing, spokesman of the Beijing Municipal Civil Affairs Bureau. Over the coming five years, those officials will be required to be separated from social organizations.

According to The Beijing News, the move to remove officials will rely on the self-discipline of the social organizations themselves, the key will be to watch and see if public servants remove themselves from the ballot next time a vote for the leadership of such organizations takes place.

The Civil Affairs Bureau's plan also outlines how, over the coming five years, the supervision of social organizations will be strengthened.

Li Xinjing told a press conference yesterday that, although social organizations can be directly registered with the department of civil affairs, they still require guidance from the government in how to manage their affairs.

Joint meetings of the social organization registration departments, supervisory departments, pivotal social organizations and other related government agencies will be held and a platform for sharing data about various social organizations will be set up by departments related to civil affairs, banking, taxation, human resources, public security, foreign affairs and other areas.

Another initiative outlined in the bureau's plan details how over the coming five years, all newly-recruited public servants in Beijing will be required to be trained at the local community level, and a system guaranteeing the welfare of such employees will be established.

A reporter learned from Beijing Bureau of Human Resources and Social Security that it had already selected the first batch of public servants to serve at the grass roots level for one year. Most of those public servants who are taking part in the program were employed less than two years ago.

Additionally, Beijing will recruit 5,000 community workers every year over the next 5 years and a total of 20,000 community workers will be trained.

By the end of 2015, the city hopes that each urban or rural community will have at least one college student and one professional community worker.

Source
The Beijing News: 社会组织里不得再有公务员 (Chinese)