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Lovemore Chikova News Editor
It was in 2012 when the head of Shaanxi Provincial Bureau of Work Safety in China Mr Yang Dacai (then 55), attended a fatal road accident. When Mr Dacai arrived at the accident scene, he learnt that 36 people had died. While at the scene, a photographer decided to take a picture of the top official who had just arrived. One of the shots caught Mr Dacai while he was smiling. When his picture was eventually published, many ordinary Chinese felt that it was out of order for Mr Dacai to smile while faced with such a monumental road disaster.

They took to social media, questioning why a senior official of his status would afford such a smile under those grisly circumstances. The common conclusion from Weibo users (a Chinese application similar to Facebook) was that Mr Dacai should be a very bad and corrupt official.

His life went under scrutiny. The bloggers started scouting for his private information and the next day one common feature emerged. Mr Dacai liked putting on expensive watches. And his pictures were published on social networks while putting on different expensive watches on 11 occasions.

The pricey watches, some costing as much as $32 000, we obviously out of reach for Mr Dacai’s salary as a civil servant. The Communist Party of China Shaanxi Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection started probing Mr Dacai.

He was eventually suspended, taken to court and sentenced to 14 years for corruption after being found guilty of taking bribes and possessing “a huge amount of property of unclear origin”.

Mr Dacai actually pleaded guilty, saying he could not explain where his wealth of almost $800 000 came from. This little, but very serious story, must conjure deep thoughts in many Zimbabweans on the fight against corruption.

Well, it seems that everyone now agree that corruption is one of the major hindrances to development in Zimbabwe. It is equally important that it is the Government at the forefront of the anti-corruption crusade. Government acknowledges the depth of corruption and is drafting a number of measures to fight the scourge.

For instance, how many people in Zimbabwe will face the same predicament with Mr Dacai if a public audit is ordered on their lifestyles?

Your guess is as good as mine, but I bet it could be quite an alarming number. The first port of call in tackling corruption should be in State-owned entities. It is quite encouraging that Government is already considering a raft of measures to deal with that sector. One of the most welcome moves is the drafting of the Public Sector Corporate Governance Bill, which will have a big impact on the management of State-owned firms.

What is needed now is decisive action from Government to address this sector once and for all. If it is discovered that the system being used to run parastatals is failing, examples from other countries should be considered.

From Mr Dacai’s incident cited above, it is clear that China is one of the countries in the world that abhors corruption. In fact, the Asian economic giant has a deliberate anti-corruption stance that has been successful in minimising the vice. Other countries can learn from how China manages its parastatals and how the country guards against corruption in State-owned entities.

As a result of its successful management of parastatals, such entities now contribute 35 percent of tax to the fiscus. The figure was released last week by State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council (SASAC) deputy secretary general Mr Peng Huagang. Mr Peng was speaking to African journalists last week on how China has managed to reform its parastatals and ensured efficiency.

It is the system employed by the Chinese government that has ensured the parastatals become a major player in the economy and can declare dividends and contribute significantly to the fiscus. This is in sharp contrast to Zimbabwe where State-owned firms have of late become a burden on the fiscus, with some extending a begging bowl to Government.

What Zimbabwe might need is to set up a body similar to SASAC, empowered to manage the parastatals. When Mr Peng took the African journalists through how SASAC works, it was clear that the success of the Chinese State-owned enterprises can be attributed to this organisation. SASAC has managed to put measures in place to ensure close monitoring of the parastatals.

The commission also ensures that systems are put in place to avoid cases of financial leakages that can be caused by the management. The commission, from time to time, dispatches supervisory teams to the State-owned firms to ensure all reporting systems are in place and that there are no excesses.

More importantly, SASAC is empowered with supervising financial situations with regards to the operations of the State entities and safeguards the rights and interests of the people in those firms. China has fully recognised that State entities form the backbone of the economy and have a large bearing on national security.

This situation also obtains in Zimbabwe where parastatals operate in all sectors to do with national security like power generation, social welfare, transport and other social services. What it means is that people’s lives depend on most of the parastatals and their proper management becomes a top priority.

One of the major requirements for State-owned firms in China is that they must carry out their activities in a manner beyond reproach so that they set a good example for other firms.

SASAC is there to ensure that the State-owned enterprises comply with public ethics, regulations and laws. It is explicitly written that the firms should eradicate corruption in their activities, fulfill tax obligations and protect interests of investors and creditors. Practicing good corporate governance is also one of the major issues emphasised for the State-owned firms.

It is the duty of SASAC to manage salaries and remuneration of the State enterprises and formulate policies regulating the income distribution of the top executives. The body is also empowered with appointing and removing top executives of the firms and evaluates their performances and either rewards or punishes them based on their performance.

According to Mr Peng: “The first line of defence is to strengthen internal monitoring to improve the internal monitoring system. “To strengthen surveillance on key departments and posts to prevent the abuse of power. To reinforce supervision on key businesses and sectors, to strengthen and improve supervision of dispatched supervisory panels.”

SASAC also audits and carries out discipline inspection and on-site inspection of the parastatals to ensure compliance. It also establishes and improves the track down and investigation mechanism for major decision-making errors and dereliction of duties in State-owned enterprises.

It also establishes and improves the accountability mechanisms in the firms. The majority of State-owned firms in China are in the sectors of power generation, petrol-chemical, construction, military and telecoms. Their management team gets a tenure based contract which enunciates their duties, rights and obligations.

They also get a tenure-based and target oriented assessment. With such a tight monitoring system in place, China will never experience a situation where managers of State-owned firms end up earning mega salaries and allowances.

Such a body as SASAC is necessary because its officials devote more time in management of the parastatals. Red flags can be raised before corruption and mismanagement become embedded in the firms.