Disciplinary inspectors report back

The 10 disciplinary inspection teams sent to various provincial regions and State-owned enterprises and institutes in an effort to crack down on intra-Party corruption have wrapped up their work.

The inspection campaign by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI), starting from late May, was targeted mainly at those provincial- and ministerial-level officials. It focused on anti-corruption, work style, discipline and selection of officials.

Seven of those teams have announced their results and transferred public tip-offs on disciplinary violations by Party members and officials to related agencies, including the CCDI and the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee, for further investigation.

The remaining three teams for the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, the Export-Import Bank of China, and the Renmin University of China will soon make their results public, the Shanghai-based China Business News quoted a source as saying on Thursday.

"Some officials were sacked following previous inspection teams that uncovered some misconduct and violations," said the source, adding that in some regions, local residents waited in lines for a chance of petitioning and offering tip-offs to the team.

The team to Jiangxi Province spotted a whistle-blowing letter from a former county Party chief who is in jail, which stirred the local officialdom.

"The teams aim to prevent and spot corruption, while the work of handling violations is in the hands of CCDI," Zhu Lijia, a public management professor at the Chinese Academy of Governance, told the Global Times.

Senior officials in Chongqing were labeled by the team as working in an environment without supervision, while there is much opportunity for graft in State-owned enterprises, said the report.

Some officials in Hubei Province were found to abuse their power for personal benefits and illegally promote officials, while some in Jiangxi were discovered to hold reception banquets with public funds and employ an excessive number of officials. Corruption cases related to project construction, mining development and land transfer were constantly found in Guizhou Province due to a lack of effective supervision.

Violations conducted by low-level staff are prevalent at China Grain Reserve Corporation, meanwhile, its management on staff is not strict enough. For the China Publishing Group Corporation, illegal cooperation with private business owners was found.

Supervision on grass-roots organizations under the Ministry of Water Resources is weak.

The teams also gave suggestions on how to solve the problem, with the most frequent including strengthening the supervision system and improving the appointment system for the personnel.

"The constant occurrence of corruption at the grass-roots level results from the lack of a comprehensive system on management, supervision and punishment," Zhu said. "The people's congress at different levels should act as a platform to supervise the authorities, a function that has been ignored for long."