First round of inspection exposes graft: discipline agency

The first group of discipline inspectors sent by China's central authorities to expose graft has uncovered corrupt officials and deterred others, a senior inspector said in Beijing Tuesday.

Zhang Jun, deputy head of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) of the Communist Party of China (CPC), confirmed at an online press conference that work by inspectors led to the investigation of Liao Shaohua, party chief of Zunyi city in southwest China's Guizhou Province, who was removed from his post on Oct. 31.

Ten teams of discipline inspectors were dispatched by an inspection leadership group of the CPC Central Committee to five provinces, three large state-owned enterprises, a central government ministry and an elite university from June to August.

In September and October, related agencies were working on evidence collected by inspectors, Zhang said during an online press conference on the CCDI's website.

The CCDI announced on Sunday that a second group of inspectors had been sent to Xinhua News Agency, the Ministry of Land and Resources, the Ministry of Commerce, China Three Gorges Corporation, and the provinces of Shanxi, Jilin, Anhui, Hunan, Guangdong and Yunnan.

"The first group of inspectors found a number of problems and evidence of graft cases," he said. "They have fulfilled their duty."

According to Zhang, the inspectors target ministerial and provincial officials, including ministers, provincial party chiefs and governors.

"These officials are key decision makers in their departments. If they had problems, the department, the province and even the entire Party would suffer a big loss," Zhang said.

Inspectors work to identify whether senior officials are involved in bribery, embezzlement, trading power for profit and other personal favors as well as expose problems of formalism, bureaucratism, hedonism and extravagance, considered four forms of undesirable work styles by the CPC leadership, he said.

When explaining the work of inspectors, Zhang said they perform background checks before starting the inspection tours, and during the inspection they collect information from local discipline inspectors and anti-graft agency officers, take tips from the public, and interview retired officials and former colleagues.

However, inspectors are not allowed to interrogate the officials in question, Zhang said.

If they find evidence of graft, they should report it to the CCDI. In cases where officials are found unqualified or unsuitable for their posts, inspectors should report them to the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee, which is in charge of personnel affairs, according to Zhang.

"Inspection and investigation are two different duties and should be assigned to different departments. Inspectors are to find out problems," he said.

Inspectors themselves are also supervised by their superiors, by those being inspected, the media and public, Zhang said, adding that the chief inspector of an inspection team is not fixed, and the location where a team will be sent also changes every round in a bid to prevent breach of duty.

Dispatching inspectors to party and government departments has proven to be an effective way of supervision and the CPC will step up this line of work, Zhang said.

The CCDI is also updating its protocols on inspectors, he added.