Regulations of the CPC on Accountability

Article 1 These Regulations are formulated in accordance with the Constitution of the CPC in order to adhere to the leadership of the Party, strengthen Party building, comprehensively and strictly govern the Party, ensure the implementation of the Party's line, principles and policies and the major decisions and arrangements of the Party Central Committee, and standardize and strengthen the accountability work of the Party.

Article 2: The Party's accountability work shall adhere to the guidance of Marxism Leninism, Mao Zedong Thought, Deng Xiaoping Theory, the important thought of the Three Represents, the Scientific Outlook on Development, and Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, enhance the "four consciousnesses", strengthen the "four confidences", resolutely safeguard the core position of General Secretary Xi Jinping as the Party Central Committee and the entire Party, resolutely uphold the authority and centralized unified leadership of the Party Central Committee, focus on promoting the overall layout of the "Five in One" and coordinating the promotion of the "Four Comprehensives" strategic layout, implement the responsibility of governing the Party and the government, urge Party organizations and leading cadres at all levels to be responsible and accountable, and practice loyalty, cleanliness, and responsibility.

Article 3: The Party's accountability work shall adhere to the following principles:

（1） Adhere to rules and regulations, seek truth from facts;

（2） Negligence must be held accountable, and accountability must be strict;

（3） Consistency of rights and responsibilities, equal allocation of responsibilities for mistakes;

（4） Combining strict management with kindness, emphasizing both motivation and restraint;

（5） Punish the past and avoid the future, treat illness and save lives;

（6） Collective decision-making and clarifying responsibilities.

Article 4: The Party committee (Party group) shall fulfill its main responsibility of comprehensively and strictly governing the Party, strengthen its leadership in the accountability work of the local area, department, and unit, and hold accountable the Party organizations and leading cadres for their dereliction of duty and responsibility in Party building and Party cause.

The discipline inspection commission shall fulfill its supervisory responsibilities and assist the party committees at the same level in carrying out accountability work. The disciplinary inspection commission's dispatched institutions shall carry out accountability work in accordance with their responsibilities and authorities.

The Party's working organs shall fulfill their supervisory responsibilities in accordance with their functions and implement accountability work within their own system and field.

Article 5: The objects of accountability are Party organizations and Party leading cadres, with a focus on Party committees (Party groups), Party working organs and their leading members, as well as Discipline Inspection Commission and its dispatched (dispatched) institutions and their leading members.

Article 6: Accountability should clarify responsibilities. The leadership team of the Party organization bears comprehensive leadership responsibility within its scope of duties. The main person in charge of the leadership team and the members directly in charge of the team bear the main leadership responsibility within their scope of duties, while the members of the team who participate in decision-making and work bear important leadership responsibility within their scope of duties.

Those who hold party organizations accountable should also hold accountable the responsible members of the leadership team within the party organization.

Party organizations and leading cadres should adhere to putting themselves in, their responsibilities in, and their work in, pay attention to finding problems and investigating the reasons from themselves, be brave enough to take responsibility, and not shirk responsibility to lower level party organizations and cadres.

Article 7: Party organizations and leading cadres who violate the Party Constitution and other internal regulations, fail to perform or improperly perform their duties, and fall under any of the following circumstances shall be held accountable:

（1） Weakened leadership of the Party, weak "four consciousnesses", inadequate "two safeguards", ineffective implementation of the Party's basic theories, basic lines, and basic strategies, major deviations and mistakes in implementing the new development concept, promoting economic construction, political construction, cultural construction, social construction, and ecological civilization construction, causing serious losses to the Party's cause and the interests of the people, and having a negative impact;

（2） The political construction of the Party is not implemented effectively, failing to maintain consistency with the Party Central Committee on major principle issues, failing to implement the Party's line, principles, policies, and major decisions and deployments, failing to comply with the reporting system for major issues, disobeying orders and prohibitions, deceiving superiors and subordinates, prominent problems of cliques and cliques, unhealthy political life within the Party, inadequate implementation of the Party's political construction work responsibility system, resulting in serious consequences or adverse effects;

（3） The lack of ideological construction of the Party, the education of Party spirit, especially the education of ideals, beliefs, and purposes, is merely a formality, and the implementation of the responsibility system for ideological work is not in place, resulting in serious consequences or adverse effects;

（4） The weak construction of party organizations, the failure to implement the responsibility system for party building work, serious violations of the principle of democratic centralism, failure to implement the rules of decision-making of the leadership team, failure to implement the party's organizational life system such as democratic life meetings and "three meetings and one lesson", ineffective implementation of the system for reporting personal matters by leading cadres, weak and lax party organizations, and prominent problems such as illegal selection and appointment of cadres, have caused adverse effects;

（5） The construction of the Party's work style is lax, the implementation of the spirit of the Central Eight point Regulation and its implementation rules is ineffective, the "Four Winds" problem has not been effectively rectified, formalism and bureaucracy are prominent, and the implementation of the Party Central Committee's decisions and deployments is characterized by excessive emphasis on rhetoric and actions, poor implementation, detachment from reality and the masses, procrastination, perfunctory behavior, and buck passing, resulting in serious consequences;

（6） The Party's discipline construction is not strictly grasped, and the maintenance of the Party's political discipline, organizational discipline, integrity discipline, mass discipline, work discipline, and life discipline is inadequate, resulting in frequent violations and disciplinary actions, causing adverse effects;

（7） Those who are not resolute and solid in promoting the construction of Party conduct and clean governance and the fight against corruption, and who are ineffective in reducing stock and curbing increment, especially those who do not converge or stop, have concentrated problem clues and strong public feedback, and have intertwined political and economic issues in corruption cases, causing adverse effects;

（8） Failure to fully implement the main responsibility and supervisory responsibility of strict governance of the Party, inadequate supervision and restraint of public power, prevalence of good people's ideology, irresponsibility and lack of responsibility, weak intra party supervision, failure to discover problems that should have been discovered, failure to report and handle problems discovered, ineffective leadership inspection work, perfunctory and inadequate implementation of inspection and rectification requirements, lack of accountability, resulting in serious consequences;

（9） Failing to fulfill management and supervision responsibilities, resulting in major production safety accidents, mass incidents, public safety incidents, or other serious accidents or incidents within the scope of responsibilities, causing significant losses or adverse effects;

（10） Those who fail to take action, act recklessly, act slowly, and act falsely on issues that concern the most direct and practical interests of the people, such as education and healthcare, ecological environment protection, food and drug safety, poverty alleviation, and social security, and whose actions harm and encroach on the interests of the people have not been rectified. The problems of using words to replace the law, using power to suppress the law, and bending the law for personal gain are prominent, and corruption and work style problems around the people are serious, causing adverse effects;

（11） Other cases of dereliction of duty that should be held accountable.

Article 8: The accountability of party organizations may be carried out in the following ways based on the degree of harm and specific circumstances:

（1） Check. Order a written inspection and practical rectification.

（2） Notification. Order rectification and report within a certain scope.

（3） Reorganization. For those who neglect their duties and responsibilities, seriously violate the discipline of the Party, and cannot be corrected themselves, they should be reorganized.

The accountability of leading cadres of the Party can be carried out in the following ways based on the degree of harm and specific circumstances:

（1） Notification. Conduct serious criticism, order a written inspection, implement practical rectification, and report within a certain scope.

（2） Admonition. Admonition through conversation or written means.

（3） Organizational adjustment or handling. For those who are derelict in duty, have serious harm, and are not suitable for their current position, measures such as suspension for inspection, adjustment of position, order to resign, dismissal, or demotion should be taken according to the situation.

（4） Disciplinary action. Disciplinary responsibility shall be investigated in accordance with the Regulations of the CPC on Disciplinary Punishment for dereliction of duty and serious harm that should be given disciplinary punishment.

The above accountability methods can be used separately or combined according to regulations. If the accountability method has an impact period, it shall be implemented in accordance with relevant regulations.

Article 9: If it is found that there are accountability situations listed in Article 7 of these Regulations that require accountability investigation, the Party committee (Party group), discipline inspection commission, and Party work organs with management authority shall, after approval by the main person in charge, promptly initiate the accountability investigation procedure. Among them, the disciplinary inspection commission and the party's working organs shall initiate accountability investigations against party organizations and their main responsible persons directly led by the same level party committee, and shall report to the main responsible person of the same level party committee for approval.

If an accountability investigation is not initiated in a timely manner, the higher-level party organization shall order the party organization with management authority to initiate it. According to the nature of the problem or work needs, higher-level party organizations can directly initiate accountability investigations or designate other party organizations to initiate them.

For party organizations and leading cadres under investigation, no separate accountability investigation procedures will be initiated.

Article 10: After initiating an accountability investigation, an investigation team shall be formed to conduct the investigation in accordance with regulations, discipline, and law, to identify the problems of dereliction of duty and responsibility of party organizations and party leaders. Taking into account both subjective and objective factors, different situations such as improper implementation, ineffective implementation, and non implementation in the process of implementing the decisions and deployments of the Party Central Committee or superiors shall be correctly distinguished, and precise handling opinions shall be proposed to achieve clear facts, conclusive evidence, sufficient basis, clear responsibilities, compliant procedures, and appropriate handling, in order to prevent ineffective or generalized accountability.

Article 11 After finding out the problem of dereliction of duty, the investigation team shall write factual materials, meet with the investigation object, listen to his statement and defense, and record them on the record; Reasonable opinions should be adopted. The investigation subject shall sign opinions on the factual materials. If they sign different opinions or refuse to sign opinions, the investigation team shall provide explanations or indicate the situation.

After the investigation is completed, the investigation team shall discuss collectively to form an investigation report, which shall list the basic information of the investigation object, the investigation basis, the investigation process, the facts of accountability, the attitude, understanding and defense of the investigation object, the handling opinions and the basis. After being signed by the leader of the investigation team and relevant personnel, the examination and approval procedures shall be performed.

Article 12: Accountability decisions shall be made by party organizations with management authority.

For party organizations directly led by the same level party committee, disciplinary inspection commissions, and party work organs, with the approval of the same level party committee or its main responsible persons, accountability can be carried out through inspection and notification. Those who are held accountable through restructuring shall be executed in accordance with the authority and procedures stipulated in the Party Constitution and relevant Party regulations.

For leading cadres managed by the same level party committee, the disciplinary inspection commission and party work organs may hold them accountable through notification and admonition upon approval by the same level party committee or its main responsible person; Propose suggestions for organizational adjustment or handling. Those who are held accountable through disciplinary measures shall be executed in accordance with the authority and procedures stipulated in the Party Constitution and relevant Party regulations.

Article 13: After the accountability decision is made, it shall be promptly announced and urged to be implemented to the accountable party organization, the accountable leading cadres, and their respective party organizations. The accountability situation should be reported to the Discipline Inspection Commission and the organizational department. The Discipline Inspection Commission should include the accountability decision materials in the anti-corruption files of the accountable leading cadres, and the organizational department should include the accountability decision materials in the personnel files of the accountable leading cadres and report to the higher-level organizational department for filing; If it involves organizational adjustment or handling, the corresponding procedures should be completed within one month.

The accountable leading cadres shall write a written review to the party organization that made the accountability decision, and conduct a profound inspection at democratic life meetings, organizational life meetings, or other party meetings. Establish a sound system for reporting and exposing typical accountability issues, and for those who are held accountable through organizational adjustments or disciplinary actions, they should be made public in an appropriate manner.

Article 14: The accountable party organizations, accountable leading cadres, and their respective party organizations shall deeply learn from the lessons and clarify rectification measures. Party organizations that make accountability decisions should strengthen supervision and inspection, and promote reform through case studies.

Article 15: If it is necessary to impose administrative sanctions or other measures on the accountable party, the party organization that made the accountability decision shall notify the relevant units, and the relevant units shall promptly handle the matter and report the results to the party organization that made the accountability decision.

Article 16: Lifetime accountability shall be implemented. For those who have committed dereliction of duty and have serious consequences, regardless of whether the responsible person has been transferred, promoted, or retired, they shall be held seriously accountable.

Article 17: In any of the following circumstances, accountability may be exempted or exempted:

（1） The mistakes made in promoting reform due to lack of experience and trial and error, as well as the errors in exploratory experiments without clear limitations, are unintentional mistakes in promoting development;

（2） Explicitly opposing or reserving opinions on erroneous decisions in collective decision-making;

（3） Those who have fulfilled their duties and responsibilities in the implementation of decisions, but have suffered losses due to force majeure, unforeseeable factors, etc.

If the opinions on correcting or revoking erroneous decisions made by superiors are not adopted, and the accountability situations listed in Article 7 of these Regulations occur, they shall be handled in accordance with the provisions of the preceding paragraph. If the superior makes a wrong decision that clearly violates laws and regulations, they should bear corresponding responsibilities.

Article 18: In any of the following circumstances, the accountability may be reduced or mitigated:

（1） Take timely remedial measures to effectively recover losses or eliminate adverse effects;

（2） Actively cooperate with the accountability investigation work and take the initiative to assume responsibility;

（3） Other lenient or mitigated circumstances stipulated by party regulations.

Article 19: In any of the following circumstances, the accountability shall be increased or aggravated:

（1） Those who fail to implement or fail to implement the repeated instructions and requirements of the Party Central Committee and higher-level Party organizations;

（2） In the process of accepting accountability investigations and handling, failing to truthfully report the situation, being perfunctory and shirking responsibility, or instigating or tacitly allowing relevant departments and personnel to engage in fraud, obstructing accountability work;

（3） Other aggravating or aggravated circumstances stipulated by party regulations.

Article 20: If the accountable party is dissatisfied with the accountability decision, they may file a written appeal to the party organization that made the accountability decision within one month from the date of receiving the accountability decision. After receiving a written appeal, the party organization that makes the accountability decision shall make a decision on the handling of the appeal within one month and inform the party organization, leading cadres, and their affiliated party organization in writing of the appeal.

During the appeal period, the execution of the accountability decision shall not be suspended.

Article 21: After the accountability decision is made, if it is found that the determination of the accountability facts is unclear, the evidence is not conclusive, the basis is insufficient, the responsibility is unclear, the procedures are not in compliance, the handling is inappropriate, or there are other situations where accountability should not be held accountable or is not precise, it should be corrected in a timely manner. When necessary, the higher-level party organization may directly correct or order the party organization that made the accountability decision to correct it.

Party organizations and leading cadres who abuse accountability or are seriously irresponsible in accountability work, causing adverse effects, shall be held accountable seriously.

Article 22: Properly treat accountable cadres, and for cadres who have completed their influence period and performed well, those who meet the conditions shall be used normally in accordance with the relevant regulations on cadre selection and appointment.

Article 23: The approval authority referred to in these Regulations refers to the minimum approval authority, and higher levels of approval authority may be applied for as needed during work.

Article 24: In addition to implementing this provision, the institutions dispatched by the Commission for Discipline Inspection shall also comply with relevant regulations of the Party Central Committee and the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection.

Article 25: The Central Military Commission may formulate relevant regulations in accordance with these Regulations.

Article 26: This Regulation shall be interpreted by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection.

Article 27 These Regulations shall come into force as of September 1, 2019. The Accountability Regulations of the Communist Party of China issued by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on July 8, 2016 shall be abolished simultaneously. For any provisions on accountability issued before these Regulations that are inconsistent with these Regulations, these Regulations shall prevail.