China should put in place workplace safety legislation for
long-term consolidation of the "take the blame and resign" system
for officials, said a spokesman for the State Administration of
Work Safety (SAWS) on Thursday.
"The introduction of the 'take the blame and resign' system to
handle workplace accidents shows the government's intense concern
for people's lives," said Huang Yi.
Recently, several officials responsible for accidents that
caused multiple deaths and huge economic losses have resigned,
including Ma Fucai, the general manager of China National Petroleum
Company, for the gas explosion that caused 233 deaths in Chongqing
Municipality late last year; and Haining Mayor Zhang Rengui, who
resigned Thursday to take responsibility for a February temple fire
in the Zhejiang Province city.
Rules and regulations are necessary to make "take the blame and
resign" a widely accepted practice, Huang said.
Recently, the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party
approved new rules for the resignation of Party and government
officials. They include nine instances of poor management for which
officials are required to resign if they are found at fault. All
nine involve poor decisions that lead to negative political impact
or great economic losses, and neglect of duty that leads to serious
accidents.
Guangdong Province's Shenzhen Special Economic Zone implemented
a similar system as early as June 2001, in which it called for
"leading cadres who cause great losses by wrong personal decisions
or mistakes in jobs should take the blame and resign."
On November 20 last year, Sichuan authorities unveiled their
temporary regulations for leading cadres to take the blame and
resign.
During the National People's Congress and Chinese People's
Political Consultative Conference sessions earlier this year,
attendees called for a system of blame taking and resignation for
civil servants in order to make them responsible for their own acts
and to prevent abuses of power.
(China Daily April 30, 2004)