Anti-graft teams report violations to Chinese authority

BEIJING - Ten inspection teams sent to investigate reported misdeeds by officials have ended their tour across China, according to the Communist Party of China's (CPC) top discipline watchdog.

The inspectors gave feedback to local government departments, state enterprises, universities, and other bodies, according to a statement released Saturday on an official website run jointly by the CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and the Ministry of Supervision.

The inspection aimed to uncover harmful behavior by officials, including trading power for money, abusing power, and bribery, as well as work styles such as formalism, bureaucracy, hedonism and extravagance, said the statement.

Inspectors also looked for breaches of CPC political discipline and cases of corruption in the selection and promotion of officials.

Xu Guangchun, one of the team leaders, gave the Chongqing Municipal Government feedback on problems reported by cadres and the public during an inspection tour there from May 29 to July 29.

Supervision of the top official is inadequate, certain cadres have lost firm faith and moral integrity, and state-owned enterprises are threatened by corruption, Xu said.

Zhang Wenyue led an inspection team in southwest China's Guizhou Province. Zhang said some local officials are trading power for money, corruption cases are frequent in the construction engineering, mining and land leasing sectors due to lack of effective supervision, and statistics are inflated in certain regions.

Wang Hongju, leader of an inspection team in east China's Jiangxi Province, said a few officials have been abusing their power by interfering with construction profits in order to seek personal profit for themselves or their relatives.

Additionally, publicly funded receptions and overstaffed bureaucracies still exist in some regions of Jiangxi, Wang added.

Chen Guanglin, who led an inspection at the Export-Import Bank of China, said that nonstandard operations occur in loan origination and some staff abuse their loan-issuing powers for personal gain.

Sun Xiaoqun, leader of the inspection team overseeing the Ministry of Water Conservancy, said the ministry lacks sound discipline inspection agencies and needs to make improvements in the selection and promotion of officials.

Chen Jiwa, who led the inspection at Renmin University, said that effective supervision is needed in the university's financial management, salary administration and independent recruitment of students.

Inspectors were sent to the provincial-level regions of Inner Mongolia, Jiangxi, Hubei, Chongqing and Guizhou, as well as the Ministry of Water Conservancy, the Export-Import Bank of China, the China Grain Reserve Corporation, Renmin University and the China Publishing Group starting in late May.

The CPC began routinely sending teams to oversee the performance of officials in 2003, and the practice was formally written into the Party's Constitution five years later.