Anti-graft focus shifts to public projects and safety
Anti-graft watchdogs plan to focus their efforts on areas where corruption is more likely to happen, such as publicly funded infrastructure projects, or where people's livelihoods are affected, such as food and industrial safety.
The campaign will also target officials in charge of decision making and administrative enforcement.
The Communist Party's Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, the Ministry of Supervision and the National Bureau of Corruption Prevention have drafted guidelines on strengthening 'graft risk prevention and control', the Beijing Times reported yesterday, citing a report in the official Outlook magazine.
Special attention will be paid to areas where the incidence of corruption is high, such as industrial and infrastructure projects, the granting of land use rights and the trading of property rights, according to the draft guidelines. Attention will also be paid to areas where people's livelihoods are affected, such as land reclamation, education, medical services, social security, food and medicine safety, environmental protection and workplace safety.
The focus will also shift to officials who have power over personnel matters, administrative enforcement, judicial affairs, and the approval or supervision of projects.
The draft guidelines in effect acknowledge that despite repeated campaigns to stamp out corruption, the problem remains rife and has become one of the main sources of public anger on the mainland.
Official abuse extends to all levels of administration, with increasing numbers of senior officials caught with their hands on ever larger amounts of money in recent years.
Liu Zhijun (pictured), sacked in February as railways minister and now under investigation for corruption, allegedly took billions of yuan in bribes and kickbacks in return for contracts on the ambitious high-speed rail system. Under his reign, the mainland claimed to have built the world's longest and fastest rail system.
The expressway construction boom since the mid-1990s has also created temptations for regional highways officials, with a large number caught taking bribes.
The country's notorious record of corruption and mismanagement in construction projects is also causing grave concern over the financial sustainability of investments and the quality and safety of infrastructure projects and buildings.
The train disaster that killed 40 people and injured nearly 200 in Wenzhou in July led to a public outcry and widespread speculation that corruption led to corners being cut during the construction of the line. Premier Wen Jiabao has vowed to deal with officials if any corruption is uncovered.
The central government recently vowed to tighten the auditing of public funds and all government-related construction projects.
5b yuan
How much was lost, in yuan, on the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway through fraud, embezzlement and other irregularities
