The mainland's new state anti-graft agency plans to 'pull out corruption at its roots' by taking a combative policy approach and co-ordinating the efforts of various disciplinary bodies, its head said yesterday. But it will not have the power to investigate or punish corrupt officials, Xinhua reported yesterday as the first details of the bureau's operations were made public since its establishment one week ago. The National Bureau of Corruption Prevention was launched in Beijing yesterday as the party leadership prepares for a major five-yearly party congress to renew President Hu Jintao's mandate and set Beijing's policy directions for the next five years. 'The bureau will help to form a united and concerted force to prevent and combat corruption,' bureau chief Ma Wen said. Its main duties included conducting policy research to 'initiate new anti-graft policies and improve existing ones' and to 'institutionalise [corruption] preventive and combative systems', Ms Ma said. Ms Ma was appointed head of the bureau on September 6, when its establishment was announced. But it was not until yesterday that it became clear how the new agency would work within existing frameworks and add to the efforts of several other watchdogs. Ms Ma also heads the Ministry of Supervision, which monitors government officials. Party officials are usually scrutinised and punished by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection - the party's top anti-corruption agency that also sets up bureaus at local levels. Ren Jianming , deputy director of Tsinghua University's Clean Governance Centre, said: 'The chief task for the new organisation is key policy research and formulation.' The bureau, which reports directly to the State Council would be able to work more independently and implement more objective anti-corruption initiatives, he said. Ms Ma said it would focus its efforts on 'some fields and areas that are susceptible to corruption'. Professor Ren suggested that those areas could include health care and land management. Qu Wanxiang the bureau's deputy head, said the new agency would also push for greater information-sharing between prosecutors, police, banks and courts. This would help fight corruption through tightened monitoring of officials' financial activities, he said. 'This is an important basic job for finding and exposing corruption as early as possible, a deterrent to corruption activities and an effective way to prevent corruption.' President Hu, since taking over as party chief five years ago, has identified corruption as a major threat to communist rule and has launched a public campaign to fight it. More than 97,200 officials were disciplined last year, Xinhua reported. Tainted at the top The number of ministerial-level officials punished for corruption in the past five years 16
