The General Office of the Ministry of Natural Resources ("MNR") has recently issued the Measures for Supervision and Administration during and after Geological Survey Activities (Draft for Comment) (the "Draft for Comment") to seek comments from the entities concerned by November 30, 2019.
The Draft for Comment proposes multiple regulatory measures that will be applied as the rules to regulate geological survey activities, including the information submission and publicity system for entities carrying out geological survey activities, the system of regulatory inspections under the "dual randomness and one publicity" mode, the administrative system by the list of entities with unusual operations and the blacklist, the credit information use system, and the credit information push and joint punishment mechanisms. Among others, according to the Draft for Comment, efforts will be made in three aspects to implement the joint punishment mechanism. First, the role of official portals, newspapers and media will be fully played to create pressure from public opinions and moral restraints. Second, information will be shared between the regulation service platform and other websites, including the National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System and the "CreditChina" website. Third, the individual-entity apportionment mechanism for liability for discreditable acts will be established, under which the list of discreditable parties to be pushed will include not only the blacklisted entities engaged in geological survey but also information about their legal representatives and technical heads.