Preventing corruption in financial institutions would be easier if there were more people checking on those making the decisions, says an article in China Youth Daily. An excerpt follows:

　　A case in Nanhai, South China's Guangdong Province, has finally concluded. Getting 620 million yuan (US$74.7 million) of loans from a bank by cheating, Feng Mingchang, the primary criminal, was sentenced to life in prison. Also, two former officials with a local financial bureau, three bank chiefs and more than 10 bank clerks were put behind bars.

　　When discussing the causes of this astonishing case, many thought an absence of effective rules and regulations was to blame.

　　A closer look, however, found there was no lack of rules and regulations on bank operations; the real culprit was an intention to break the rules.

　　As a judge who has worked on many similar cases said, banks have very strict rules and regulations on issuing loans. They have clear statements on who can get a loan and how much, and under what conditions.

　　But with help from the bank chiefs and clerks, huge loans went into Feng's pockets.

　　It happened only because those who were supposed to follow and maintain the rules chose to ignore them.

　　It is easy to see that a balanced power structure is urgently needed in financial institutions.

　　The banks and government departments involved in the Nanhai case were all under the single-handed control of their bosses. These people had the power to make major decisions while keeping other officials totally in the dark.

　　Since there were no other people checking on the power of the one in charge, effective supervision was absent.

　　Under such a situation, the ones in charge can easily be corrupted. As many experts have suggested, the power of making decisions concerning finance, human resources and other similar issues should be divided among different people within an institution or government department. In this way, better decisions can be made and corruption more easily prevented.