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BEIJING, Jan. 16 (Xinhua) -- The Communist Party of China (CPC) has
warned that cadres who take advantage of their positions to do
insider trades on the stock market or allow their spouses or
children to take advantage of their influence in business face
stepped-up anti-corruption efforts.
A communique released on Wednesday at the end of a three-day plenary
session of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Commission for
Discipline Inspection (CCDI) also warned officials against several
other unhealthy practices. These include accepting cash or financial
instruments as gifts, taking gifts at occasions such as weddings and
funerals, occupying extra apartments and circumventing the rules to
buy affordable housing intended for low- and medium-income earners.
The crackdown on corruption in 2008 will also focus on officials who
seek to profit from involvement in construction bids, land sales,
trading of property rights and government procurement, the
communique said.
Officials who buy or sell official posts or use social connections
with upper-level officials to solicit promotions, and those who
offer bribes during elections, will be severely punished, according
to the communique.
The second plenary session of the 17th CCDI, which ended on
Wednesday, outlined the anti-corruption and Party building work for
2008.
The session pointed out that 2008 is the 30th anniversary of China's
reform and opening-up drive, the 30th anniversary of the restoration
and reestablishment of CPC's discipline watchdogs and the year that
Beijing will host the Olympic Games.
Therefore, anti-corruption work is of greater significance this
year.
The meeting urged discipline watchdogs at all levels to further
improve the institutions for punishing and preventing corruption, to
continue to make innovation in anti-corruption work, so as to
provide a solid foundation for building up a moderately prosperous
society in all respects.
According to the meeting, supervision and inspection will be
launched to ensure all the decisions and policies made at the
17thCPC National Congress and the scientific outlook on development
are carefully implemented.
Officials at various levels who fail to implement orders from
central government or disregard bans ordered by central government,
will be asked to rectify, so as to ensure CPC Central Committee's
decision on market price regulating and control, energy conservation
and pollutant discharge reduction, fixed assets investment, land
management, real estate market regulation be smoothly implemented,
according to the meeting.
Special efforts will also be made to rectify official's malpractice
in fields of environmental protection, food and medicine safety,
work safety, land appropriation, which common citizens always pay
great attention to and voice vehemently, according to the communique.
Supervision will be intensified on the management of social security
fund, housing accumulating fund and special fund for poverty and
disaster relief, said the communique.
The communique said the high intensity of the fight against
corruption will be kept up. Corrupt cases involved leading officials
will be focused on. Collusion between officials and business people,
trades between power and money, power and eroticism will be severely
dealt with. In addition to punishment under the legal code, cadres
behaving badly can expect additional punishment ranging from a
warning to dismissal from their posts and expulsion from the Party.
Corrupt cases in fields of construction projects, land management,
mineral resources exploration and development, as well as corrupt
cases in state-owned enterprises, financial institutions and
judicial system will be severely punished.
"Fight against commercial briberies will be intensified. The
anti-corruption momentum will be maintained and corrupt officials
will be severely punished without any leniency," said the communique.
Anti-corruption institutional reform will be deepened. And
intra-Party supervision will be strengthened. Supervision over
leading officials, especially major leading officials, will be
further tightened. Openness of Party affairs and governmental
affairs will be pushed forward.
Persons in charge of state-owned enterprises must behave themselves,
said the communique. They are banned from seeking profits for
themselves or their "special concerned persons" through related
transactions and other means. They should not favor the business of
their spouse, children and other "special concerned persons" and
should not provide favors to each other.
They should not seek personal profits amid enterprise asset
integration or when strategic investors come; They are banned from
insider trades when companies are listed or restructured; they are
banned to ask or force accounting staff to provide fake financial
reports; and they are banned to set their own salaries by themselves
or issue subsidies and bonus randomly, according to the communiqu¨¦.
Chinese President Hu Jintao, also general secretary of the CPC
Central Committee, delivered a keynote speech at the high-profile
meeting, pledging to step up the nation's anti-corruption battle.
"Anti-corruption measures and the upholding of integrity should run
thoroughly through the nation's economic, political and cultural
makeup and the Party's ideological, organizational, work style and
institutional building," he said.
He pointed out that prevention and punishment should be "put on an
equal footing" in the anti-corruption combat, and "symptoms and root
causes should be addressed at the same time".
Hu's speech was a "guideline document to enhance the work of
anti-corruption and upholding of integrity" and was of great
significance to the deepening of the graft fight, the communique
said.
Wu Bangguo, Wen Jiabao, Jia Qinglin, Li Changchun, Xi Jinping, Li
Keqiang and Zhou Yongkang, all members of the Standing Committee of
the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, were present at
the CCDI session.
Government officials were brought to the front line by the Communist
Party's watchdog in its battle against corruption last year. By
June, a total of 24,879 cases had been investigated, with concerned
bribes totaling more than 6.156 billion yuan.
Government employees were involved in 5,523 bribe cases, accounting
for 22.2 percent of those caught, statistics showed.
He Minxu, former vice-governor of eastern Anhui Province, was
sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve for taking bribes of
8.41 million yuan (about 1.12 million U.S. dollars) from 27
organizations and individuals, the latest senior official to be
brought down in a corruption scandal.
Another striking case last year was that of Zheng Xiaoyu, former
director of China's State Food and Drug Administration (SFDA), who
was executed in July, the fourth senior official of his rank to be
sentenced to death since 2000. Zheng was found guilty of taking 6.49
million yuan in bribes and dereliction of duty.
His dereliction of duty undermined the efficacy of China's drug
monitoring and supervision, endangered public life and health and
had a very negative social impact, said the Supreme People's Court
when approving the death penalty.
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