Civil servant at 13? Chinese officials called out for fake resumes

[Windsorlou]

Civil servant at 13? Chinese officials called out for fake resumes

Staff Reporter
2012-04-11
09:08 (GMT+8)

A document published by Changzhi shows an official claiming to have begun working when he would have been just 13 years old. (Internet photo)

Eight officials from Changzhi, a city in northern China's Shanxi province, have been accused of doctoring their resumes after a local newspaper published the documents along with those of 27 others, reports the Shanghai-based First Financial Daily. The officials are said to have made false claims about their work experience.

The information given on their resumes implies that the officials joined the civil service between the ages of 13 and 17, obviously long before graduating from high school or earning university degrees.

Two of the officials, 56-year-old Zhao Yaohua and 30-year-old Wang Rui, would have had to join the civil service at the ripe old age of 13 to accumulate the work experience provided on their resumes.

Another official, Li Yan, would have joined the civil service at 16, and five others at 17, the newspaper reported.

The local Changzhi Daily published the resumes in keeping with a regular practice that it follows whenever new officials are promoted to mid-ranking positions in the local government.

In response to the First Financial Daily's request for comments, an official from the provincial government said questions were initially raised by internet users. The government is now looking into the matter, the official said, promising to provide a more detailed explanation in the future.

The netizens' suspicions are not groundless. In February, the chief of Changzhi's education department, Li Fu, was found to have used his influence to obtain a teaching job for his son, who was still in his first year of university. Li's move came to light when his son assumed the position in 2010, claiming to have four years' work experience under his belt. Both father and son were sacked afterward.

It is not unusual for officials in Shanxi, and indeed elsewhere in China, to inflate work experience specified on their resumes in order to win promotions.

Last December, internet users queried the work experience of Cao Li, Communist Party chief of Anjiazhuang rural township in Shanxi; her resume showed that she began working with the local government long before she would have graduated from high school. Cao lost her job after an ensuing investigation found that her father, a senior local official, illegally reserved the position for her even before her graduation.

Similar cases have been discovered in several other counties, the newspaper said.

Zhu Xianqi, a spokesman for the Shanxi provincial party committee, told the First Financial Daily that no official would be promoted unless their age, work experience and tenure in the party can be verified.