Nanjing clamps down on sham business trips
Nanjing has put the brakes on funding overseas business junkets for officials after finding many were using the trips for sightseeing.
A clampdown introduced last year resulted in at least 2,000 fewer officials in the Jiangsu capital travelling abroad on public money than in 1997.
Many trips organised by work units were found to be using conferences and training sessions to mask their real reason for going abroad - sightseeing.
Nanjing's party committee and Government implemented a regulation requiring cadres wishing to travel to apply to the Government, which now investigates the true nature of trips.
Those who had to stay at home included 38 cadres of vice-director level or above whose foreign itineraries were 'a bit shady', according to the Beijing Daily.
A group of six who wanted to attend an international property seminar was turned down after asking for 15 days in France and Italy, and 300,000 yuan (HK$281,000) to pay for the trip.
Another group hoping for 18 days in the US and Canada to attend a suspicious building course was also rejected.
The number of days allotted for overseas travel was cut by 92 days. The two regulations have saved the city more than three million yuan.
