CHINA / National |
China sets up corruption database(Xinhua)Updated: 2007-03-29 17:06 BEIJING -- A procuratorate in Henan has compiled a corruption database that profiles crimes committed by Chinese officials in recent years. Set up by Jiyuan Municipal Procuratorate in central China's Henan Province, the database analyzes more than 3,000 major work-related cases dealt with by procuratorates in China over the past seven years. Cases are described as "group corruption", long-term corruption, collusion with businessmen, dereliction of duty and "holiday corruption". The report said that some 18 percent of the cases involved a group of officials. When one official came under investigation, other officials -- such as colleagues and superiors -- were soon uncovered. In 2001, the investigation of Ding Zhiguo, former vice president of the Heilongjiang Provincial Branch of the Agricultural Bank of China, led to the exposure of a sprawling case of selling official posts, involving more than 260 officials, including Han Guizhi, former chairwoman of the CPPCC Heilongjiang Provincial Committee and Tian Fengshan, former minister of Land and Resources. The report said that cases in which suspects had taken bribes for more than five years -- long-term corruption -- made up 26 percent of the total, with the longest case running for 16 years. Wang Zhaoyao, former deputy secretary of Anhui Provincial CPC Committee, took advantage of his position to obtain bribes worth more than 7 million yuan (890,000 U.S. dollars) and failed to account for property worth 6.5 million yuan from 1990 to 2005. Departments should be on the lookout for clues and launch investigations against corrupt officials as quickly as possible, the report said. Detailing 3,000 cases of collusion, the report said that 1,348 officials above county-level were found to have illicitly colluded with business people, with 608 of them involved in land and project approval cases. "Land corruption" led to the fall of many high-profile officials last year, including He Minxu, vice governor of Anhui Province, and Liu Zhihua, vice mayor of Beijing Municipality. The real estate industry, which has become a hotbed of power-for-money deals, needs to be regulated, the report stated. The report found that despite the heavy losses to society that they represented, penalties for cases of "abuse of power" and "dereliction of duty" were often far too lenient. Many workplace accidents -- such as authorizing unsafe mines or turning a blind eye to illegal mining activities -- were directly related to abuse of power and dereliction of duty. The 526 cases registered in the database involved 548 deaths and 344 serious injuries. However, most offenders escaped criminal sanctions or were put on probation. Some local officials claimed that their misdeeds were simply the unfortunate outcome of a good intention, rather than a violation of the law, the report said. The report found that 60 percent of bribery cases could be described as "holiday corruption" -- bribes disguised as "traditional holiday gifts". Luan Weidong, a county official in Henan Province, took bribes totaling 823,000 yuan (103,000 U.S.dollars) at Spring Festival and Mid-autumn Festival from 1999 to 2004. Luan's defence was that taking money on holidays was a Chinese tradition. |
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