Community staff register for a resident at a community in Qiaoxi District of Shijiazhuang, capital of north China's Hebei Province, Jan. 7, 2021. Shijiazhuang started to conduct citywide nucleic acid tests covering all residents on Wednesday. (Xinhua/Jin Haoyuan)

China’s top disciplinary agency has reported a number of cases of government officials, ranging from deputy mayor to county-level heads, who failed to deliver their duties in epidemic prevention and control work, as several regions including Beijing, Hebei, and Liaoning, found themselves again in a tornado of struggles with coronavirus. Stricter disciplinary actions will be enforced, warned the agency on Saturday.

The Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) listed a couple of cases in a report released on Saturday, exposing the poor performance and lack of responsibility of some government officials, including from individuals involved in taking bribes, drinking, and gambling during their local constituency’s fight against COVID-19. 

Within merely a week, the local disciplinary offices have held both Beijing and Hebei’s Shijiazhuang officials accountable for untimely and ineffective epidemic prevention and control, reflecting the sloppiness and lack of awareness in coping with the disease. 

Some government officials have even been involved in drinking and gambling during quarantine. Last December, An Jun, head of the local justice bureau at Jinpu New District in Dalian, Northeast China's Liaoning Province, was removed from his post for holding a private gathering attended by one of his colleagues in the bureau, who had earlier been told to undergo centralized isolation. The colleague, surnamed Xing, was not only allowed to self-quarantine at his office, but was also invited to have drinks with An in the evening. 

Senior officials in a county of Ganzhou, East China’s Jiangxi Province, have also been dismissed for gambling during the epidemic. 

An inspection group of 15 from the local emergency management bureau in Linfen, North China’s Shanxi Province, were reported to have taken bribes worth of 1,000-2,000 yuan ($154-309) each, when they examined the anti-virus work at a local enterprise. 

In some cases, officials not only failed to deliver satisfactory anti-virus efforts, but disobeyed local anti-virus rules. Zhou Zhongyao, head of a local public complaints and proposals bureau in Dalian, refused to take advice from management staff at a quarantine hotel when he was working as a volunteer on behalf of his bureau in December. Moreover, he posted inappropriate remarks on a WeChat group chat. 

Zhou was suspended from office and put under inspection, according to the Dalian disciplinary office. 

The CCDI warned all levels of government to stay on high alert as multiple cities and provinces experienced COVID-19 flare-ups, with the agency vowing to adopt stricter inspections to rule out such negligence of duty. 

Global Times