Shenzhen's Party chief Li Hongzhong lashed out at "mediocre" officials Wednesday and vowed to rid the bureaucracy of officials who fail to perform their duties.

The city government will launch an "accountability drive" to force officials to take responsibility for the mistakes they have made, he said.

Li made the remark at the opening of a three-day seminar for the city's officials.

"Some people just won't try to do their best -- they find excuses and cherry-pick assignments which are nice and easy," the 49-year-old Harvard-trained Party secretary said.

"Some officials perform poorly or even fail to do their work properly," Li said, criticizing irresponsible leaders as evildoers. "Their non-performance poses a big threat to the benefits of the general public."

Li urged all levels of governments to build a proper reward and penalty system, so that "officials who fail in their duty would get punished and those who work hard would be rewarded."

The municipal people's congress has ordered the legal and disciplinary departments to pursue officials exposed in government audits as incompetent or having committed mistakes in a resolution passed Tuesday, and Li called it debut of the accountability drive.

"The next step will focus on problems in public services management and production safety," Li said. "We must establish a responsibility and review mechanism so that officials in charge would be held accountable."

Li pledged that the campaign would not just be about chanting slogans and would cover every level of the government.

The Party secretary also asked the officials to be modest, thrifty, and work diligently like an ox.

The seminar comes after the city's auditors recently exposed widespread abuses and embezzlement among officials.

(Shenzhen Daily September 30, 2005)