Shanghai is considering a new regulation for officials after their retirement or resignation, so as to check their "future corruption", local authorities said Thursday.

The regulation, to be decreed by the municipal discipline inspection commission and the supervision bureau, stipulates that officials at and above the deputy section chief level shouldn't work, during the first three years of retirement or resignation, in profit-making organizations whose operation had a direct link with their previous work.

They are also forbidden from taking part in profit-making activities related to their previous posts, or those that might be in conflict with the public interest.

For the officials below the level, the period is two years.

According to Liu Jiaxin, head of the environmental protection bureau of Minhang district, Shanghai, officials had some resources that ordinary people didn't have. As a result, tightening the control over officials nowadays is necessary.

In recent years, many Chinese officials have resigned to do business, or make a profit after retirement, some utilizing their power and influence which they gained during the years in public service.

For instance, Yin Guoyuan, former deputy director of the Shanghai Housing, Land and Resources Administration, was sentenced to death with two years' reprieve. He kept asking for bribes after retirement, and was involved in the Shanghai social security fund scandal which was exposed in 2006.

The municipal discipline watchdog is asking personnel departments to keep records of ex-officials whereabouts.

(Xinhua News Agency September 11, 2009)