Is Notary Office Monopoly or Public Interest?

• Author: Wang Junlu et al

Last October, it was revealed on the internet that the director of Tongxiang notary office received an annual salary of 800 thousand yuan and embezzled the public fund.

It was also recently revealed that Wenling notary office Director had annual income of one million yuan. After the investigation by the journalists, the income of notary office was truly higher than normal. Average income of 7 public servants from Wenling was more than 520 thousand Yuan in 2011 which was only counted from their lawful income.

The notary officials can lawfully receive high salary because their income was paid by their earnings as commission, which could reached 30 percent of earnings by its internal standard.

The law gives notary office’s monopoly. There was no second notary office in one certain area. So by taking commissions in monopoly means making public resource private.

According...