A new system was recently developed by the Party discipline inspection commission of Fuzhou, East China's Fujian Province. Called the "Petition Allocation and Tracking System," it will help the discipline inspection commission track the progress of petitions.
In a report released by Xinhua News Agency on July 8, Wednesday, the system can also be used to correct and discipline officials who display an attitude toward as well as mishandle petitions.
The roles and responsibilities of each official, as well as the department assigned to the case, will all be identified by the system, enabling government officials in charge of petitions to effectively monitor whether a petition has been addressed or not.
"In the past, progress on the handling of petitions bogged down after we assigned petitions to middle-level officers," an official from the disciplinary department told Xinhua in an interview. "Directors from different offices in the commission can easily see where the petition has been handled by whom. It's like installing a GPS system on each case."
Aside from monitoring progress, users of the system can add memos to facilitate supervision of petitions by senior authorities. A comprehensive analysis can also be produced by the system based on the inputs available. With one click, the user will have access to streamlined information.
The system's effectiveness was recently tested by the disciplinary department to resolve a petition involving a land-leasing dispute and a deposit of 50 million yuan within three days.
Since its development, the department has accepted 1,319 petitions, 131 of which are already resolved.
To increase transparency, officials from Putian and Quanzhou in Fujian Province are now being required to submit monthly and seasonal reports regarding petitions. Unresolved petitions have also been distributed among different government departments in Fujian and will directly affect the yearly evaluation of officials.