{"id":168965,"date":"2014-02-12T23:58:52","date_gmt":"2014-02-13T07:58:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/?p=168965"},"modified":"2014-02-12T23:59:57","modified_gmt":"2014-02-13T07:59:57","slug":"123456-password-leads-leak-official-salaries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2014\/02\/123456-password-leads-leak-official-salaries\/","title":{"rendered":"“123456” Password Leads to Leak of Official Salaries"},"content":{"rendered":"
A Hunan city government’s use of the world’s most common password<\/a> allowed public scrutiny of its database of officials’ salaries<\/strong><\/a>, Global Times’ Wen Ya reports:<\/p>\n Net users were surprised to find the salaries were lower than they expected, with most being in the 2,000 to 4,000 yuan ($330 to $660) per month range. Others pointed out that there would be additional hidden “grey” income – a claim which the local government has denied.<\/p>\n According to a post by Net user “Dancing Angel” in online forum tianya.cn on January 25, one could check all the monthly salaries of civil servants at Lengshuijiang, a county-level city, by entering the password “123456” at the local salary management website.<\/p>\n Zhang Dongfeng, a reporter from the Nandu Daily, said he tried the password on Monday and was able to access all the salary information. But by Tuesday it no longer worked. [Local officials might have upgraded the password to “1234567”, the eighth most common, “12345678”, the third, or “123456789”, the sixth<\/a>.]<\/p>\n [\u2026] “Civil servants in lower level government agencies surely receive low salaries. But no one knows how much hidden income they have,” Song [Ze of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences’ Institute of Finance and Trade Economics] said, noting greater transparency is needed. [Source<\/a><\/strong>]<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Also at Global Times, Zhang Yiwei reported a nationwide “exodus” of judges, with low pay cited as a leading cause<\/a>. One 27-year-old outgoing judge from Shandong complained that “I work until I am utterly exhausted, but I make even less than a construction worker”: about 2,000 yuan per month. Last summer, China Media Project translated a Beijing News interview with a former deputy township head in Sichuan who had posted an open resignation letter online<\/strong><\/a>. He explained:<\/p>\n Every month my salary was 3,046 yuan, with a housing allowance of 422 yuan a month and phone subsidies of 400 yuan. At the end of the year I could look forward maybe to a performance bonus of several thousand yuan. But every month my son went through at least four packs of diapers at 138 yuan a pack, and four cans of formula at 209 yuan each (total 1,388). I don\u2019t smoke or play cards. I don\u2019t buy my own liquor. I still depended entirely on some support from my parents. [Source<\/a><\/strong>]<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n When officials struggle to make ends meet, bribing them becomes easier and more affordable<\/a>. One veteran civil servant (making 2,900 yuan a month) recently called for half of all local officials to be fired<\/a>, and for some of the resulting savings to be used to boost survivors’ pay. His proposal was censored.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A Hunan city government’s use of the world’s most common password allowed public scrutiny of its database of officials’ salaries, Global Times’ Wen Ya reports: Net users were surprised to find the salaries were lower than they expected, with most being in the 2,000 to 4,000 yuan ($330 to $660) per month range. Others pointed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":962,"featured_media":168966,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[14744,14745,14746,100,5],"tags":[203,137,5958,7523,4617],"class_list":["post-168965","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-level-2-article","category-level-3-article","category-level-4-article","category-politics","category-society","tag-corruption","tag-digital-security","tag-hunan","tag-local-officials","tag-salaries","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"yoast_head":"\n\n
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