(CFP)

Despite the hundreds of documents regulating civil servants' conduct, such as the use of government vehicles and receiving gifts, hospitality or other benefits, Ma called for an overall law on the standards of conduct for civil service.

Ma predicted that China would have a complete anti-corruption legal framework within three to five years and the most urgent task was to draft the procedural law on government's administrative conduct.

"Some people's concern that exerting high standards on government's administrative conduct could impede stability in a transitional society is totally unnecessary. An anti-graft legal framework contains only the most basic requirements on civil service and it would be difficult to prevent and punish corruption without it," Ma said.

Transparent wealth

Liu Ling, an NPC deputy and lawyer from east China's Jiangsu Province, suggested that the future anti-corruption law should mandate the disclosure of officials' assets. She said that the increase in the total number of abuse-of-power cases in recent years, as well as the growing amount of money involved, can be attributed to the lack of supervision on the wealth of civil servants.

China has previously piloted such asset disclosure programs in parts of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, as well as Zhejiang and Jiangsu provinces, but mostly among low-ranking officials.

In 2012, the Guangdong Provincial Government announced that similar programs would be launched in Nansha New District in Guangzhou City and Hengqin New District in Zhuhai City, as well as in Shixing County, on a trial basis.

The government of Shixing would ask 526 local officials to declare their families' assets, including salaries, bonuses, subsidies, service income, real estate holdings, cars and investment portfolios, said Zheng Zhentao, Party chief of Shaoguan City, which administers Shixing, in January.

However, he added that the financial status of these officials would only be available for inquiry via internal government networks, rather than being fully revealed to the public.

According to the Procuratorial Daily, NPC deputies proposed laws on the disclosure of officials' assets as early as the 1980s. In 1994, such a law was listed on the NPC's five-year legislative agenda. Until this year's NPC session, Han Deyun, an NPC deputy and lawyer from southwest China's Chongqing Municipality, had submitted the suggestion of drafting laws on disclosing officials' assets for seven consecutive years.

In July 2012, Han received a reply from the CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, saying that related government departments are conducting research in preparation for drafting such a law.

Han told the New Express Daily that previous pilot programs often proved ineffective mainly due to a lack of firm legal or regulatory basis.

Over the past year, several government officials from across the country have been ousted for corruption after whistleblowers posted records of their families' colossal real estate holdings on the Internet.

One noteworthy case involves Cai Bin, former head of the Urban Management Bureau of Panyu District in Guangzhou, who twice declared to higher authorities as required by Party discipline that his family owned only two properties.

On October 9, 2012, an anonymous whistleblower posted records of 21 properties owned by Cai and later investigations showed Cai's family owned 22 properties, including a villa, a factory building, apartments and commercial properties. Cai was subsequently removed from his position and investigated for bribery.

According to a cabinet reshuffling program adopted by the NPC on March 14, the country will introduce a unified social credit code and establish a real property registration system, as well as improve the identity registration system used for financial accounting. Establishing these systems will enhance and innovate social management systems as well as lay the groundwork for preventing and punishing corruption, it said.

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