Cadres face the sack if they miss green goals
Provincial governors and municipal leaders will be fired if they do not meet targets for energy saving and pollution reduction, the State Council said yesterday. The penalties take effect next year.
The cabinet has set up a new system to gauge governments' and enterprises' performance on meeting targets for reducing energy consumption and pollution, with officials' promotions tied to the results, the Nanfang Daily reported.
'Provincial and municipal chiefs as well as party heads in charge of polluting state-owned enterprises will be dismissed if they fail the assessments,' Zhao Hualin , deputy director of pollution control at the State Environmental Protection Administration (Sepa), told the newspaper.
Governments and enterprises will be given marks out of 100, with 40 per cent based on performance on energy saving and 60 per cent for performance on cutting pollution.
Their performance would be scored outstanding, good, pass or fail, with a score below 60 being a fail.
By 2010, Beijing aims to cut energy consumption per unit of gross domestic product 20 per cent and reduce emissions of pollutants 10 per cent from 2005 levels. Provinces have been set yearly targets towards achieving these goals, but most provinces missed their targets last year.
In order to tie the system to officials' promotions, the Communist Party's Organisation Department, which holds enormous power over personnel, had endorsed the State Council measure, the newspaper said.
It said the State Council had also issued two documents setting out measures for calculating and monitoring emission reductions. 'We have listed the 'veto system' [for dismissing failed officials] and 'accountability policy' in the new assessment rules,' Mr Zhao said.
'The new policies will be put into practice very soon.'
The newspaper said 17 departments under the State Council had joined together to implement the new system, including Sepa, the National Development and Reform Commission and its Energy Office, the Ministry of Personnel and the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission.
Under the new rules, provincial and municipal heads should report emissions reduction data to the State Council by the end of March.
An assessment team drawn from the 17 departments will begin conducting spot checks by the end of May. All the reports will be made public.
