Anti-graft body to issue new inspection guidelines

China's top anti-graft agency said on Wednesday that it plans to issue new guidelines on dispatching inspection teams to more effectively supervise those in power.  [Special coverage]

The new guidelines will include the revision of a regulation on Party inspection tours that was passed in July 2009, while the current inspection mechanism will be improved, according to the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the Communist Party of China.

At a conference on Wednesday, the commission said the inspection system will cover all public sectors, including local governments, ministries and commissions, State-owned enterprises and public institutions.

The conference was aimed at implementing the decision on comprehensively deepening reform that was approved by the Third Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee.

According to a communique released after the plenary session, the CPC Central Committee called for systems to prevent corruption and punish corrupt officials. It also called for institutional innovation and the building of a system that can guarantee anti-corruption efforts.

During the conference, presided over by Wang Qishan, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, the discipline watchdog announced that it will enhance supervision of the working methods of officials and take stricter measures to punish corrupt officials.

Disciplinary authorities should detect official corruption in a timely manner and warn them seriously against such transgressions, the commission said.

It also said it would offer detailed guidelines on the current "double-management" system of disciplinary administration.

Under the "double-management" system, the disciplinary officials are regulated by both the local Party commission and the higher level of disciplinary watchdog, which analysts say makes it difficult for the disciplinary officials to supervise the local Party commission.

Zhang Jun, deputy secretary of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the CPC, said on Nov 5 that the dispatched inspection teams will keep a close eye on the chief provincial officials since it is difficult for local disciplinary officials to supervise them.

In May, the commission dispatched its first batch of inspection teams to 10 agencies, including Chongqing municipality and Renmin University of China, and the commission announced in October that the disciplinary staff had collected some information on corruption among officials there.

A second batch of inspection teams was dispatched in October to another 10 institutions, including the Ministry of Commerce, China Three Gorges Corporation and Xinhua News Agency.