The Ministry of Housing and Urban-rural Development ("MOHURD") has recently distributed the Administrative Measures for the Identification and Investigations of and Punishment Against Illegal Practices During the Outsourcing and Contracting of the Construction Part of Construction Projects (the "Measures"), with effect from January 1, 2019.

The Measures require that, construction project owners and project contractors shall enter into contracts in strict accordance with law to clearly define each party's rights, obligations and responsibilities, and are banned from illegal outsourcing, transfer of the contracting, illegal subcontracting, or contracting in others' name, in order to ensure project quality and construction safety. The Measures give clear definitions of "illegal outsourcing", "transfer of the contracting", "illegal subcontracting" and "contracting in others' name", and expound on which circumstances will constitute such illegal practices, requiring that any entity or individual shall report the illegal practices it discovers, such as "illegal outsourcing", "transfer of the contracting", "illegal subcontracting" and "contracting in others' name", to the competent authority of housing and urban-rural development under the government at or above the county level at the place where the project concerned is located. The relevant competent authorities shall launch investigations according to law into the said illegal practices detected within the local administrative regions, identify them pursuant to the Measures, and impose administrative punishment according to law. Furthermore, the Measures also clarify the grounds for punishment

(Source: MOHURD )