Graft-buster to rout top cadres

Leading graft-buster Wei Jianxing has vowed to crack down on corrupt cadres and officials who waste large sums of public money.

He said an intensified anti-graft drive this year would target several cases involving senior cadres.

The Secretary of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection said party discipline inspection units at provincial and local level would be strengthened.

As the market economy developed, Mr Wei admitted more cadres were being lured into corruption.

'By increasing the combat ability of disciplinary agencies, we hope to curb the spread of corrupt practices and to reinforce unity of the party,' Xinhua quoted Mr Wei as saying.

Other key tasks will be to combat offences such as forcing illegal fees from peasants, charging businesses extra fees and stopping unreasonable expenses incurred by government departments.

Meanwhile, officials from the Personnel Ministry claimed a Western-style recruitment system had been used to find the best cadres for the civil service.

'New cadres from central and provincial government departments are all recruited through competitive national open examinations,' Liu Jialin, director of the personnel deployment department at the Personnel Ministry, said.

'Nine national open recruitment examinations have been launched since the Civil Service Temporary Regulation was passed in 1993. Among the 400,000 candidates who applied, 3,000 were recruited,' Xinhua quoted Mr Liu as saying.

Eighteen provinces even organised open recruitment exams for government positions down to village level, and 53,000 people out of 520,000 candidates were recruited.

'A total of 2,636 peasants joined the civil service after passing the examinations. Another 664 people were employed outside their home provinces,' Mr Liu said.