The corrupt must not go scot-free

No matter how crafty corrupt officials are, they cannot escape the long hand of the law. But even then judicial authorities should strengthen supervision and inspection to root out corruption, says an article in the Beijing News. Excerpts:

A court has found Li Xuezhi, an official with the Department of Environmental Protection in North China Center for Environmental Inspectors, guilty of taking bribes. The court order says Li took every precaution before taking bribes from enterprises to ensure that his crime was not detected by supervision and inspection officials. For instance, he once checked the telephone log of the company manager to ensure that his name didn't figure on it. He even forced some officials to take a bath before taking a bribe to prevent them from planting some evidence on him to prove his crime.

But despite making his best efforts to cover his tracks, he was caught and convicted for his crime. Li's actions show that corrupt officials like him are aware of the "potential risk" of taking bribes. But their inherent greed still forces them to take the risk.

Multiparty testimonies, summaries of meetings and accounts of the companies that gave bribes to Li have already formed a complete chain of evidence to prove his crime. But the incident shows that there are loopholes in the supervision and inspection system which need to be plugged immediately.

Since corrupt officials like Li are not rare today and take every precaution not to leave any evidence of their crime, the authorities have to take foolproof measures to ensure that irrespective of their shrewdness, no corrupt official escapes punishment.

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(China Daily 07/02/2014 page9)