Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao(C) urges
tougher prevention and punishment on corruption at a conference on clean
governance, March 24, 2009.(Xinhua/Huang Jingwen) Photo
Gallery>>>
BEIJING, March 24 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Premier Wen
Jiabao Tuesday urged tougher prevention and punishment on corruption, saying
"China faced the toughest year in its economic development since the turn of the
century."
Localities and departments should step up supervision
over corruption, regulate the use of executive power, tackle persistent problems
that harm public interest and accelerate construction of a system to prevent and
punish corruption to provide a solid guarantee for reform, development and
stability, Wen told a conference on clean governance.
"In the past year, various departments under the
State Council and local governments at all levels made marked achievements in
supervising administration power and promoting the building of clean government
and the work against corruption."
"But corruption still occurred continually in some
fields ... some officials' slack behavior severely damaged the government's
image and relations between officials and the public," Wen said.
He urged tougher scrutiny over projects that were
closely related to people's livelihood, such as water conservation, railroads
and other forms of transportation, and urban construction.
Individuals or groups should be severely punished for
making defective or harmful farm products or imposing unreasonable charges on
farmers, students and patients, Wen said.
In addition, he called for strict supervision of
officials' use of power to ensure that they did not use public investment
projects for their personal benefit.
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao urges tougher
prevention and punishment on corruption at a conference on clean
governance, March 24, 2009.(Xinhua/Huang Jingwen) Photo Gallery>>>
Wen said any construction of new government
buildings, training centers and government hotels were banned between now and
the end of 2010.
"The use of public cars and public funds for business
trips aboard and reception fees should be strictly regulated," he said.
Reception expenditures this year should be reduced by
10 percent over 2008, car purchase and maintenance fees should be cut by 15
percent on the basis of the average amount in the recent three years, and
expenditure for business trips abroad reduced by 20 percent based on the average
amount over the recent three years.
Wen said, this year efforts will be focused on
investigation and handling of corruption cases involving government organs and
officials, and hard strike will be given to "collusion between officials and
businesses, power-for-money deals and commercial bribery cases."
He urged officials to discipline themselves and
"resolutely oppose bureaucratism and formalism."
Last year, China investigated 2,687 government
officials for graft, malfeasance and infringement on people's rights. Those
included four people at the province or ministry level, said Prosecutor-General
Cao Jianming while delivering a report on the work of the Supreme People's
Procuratorate earlier this month.
Cao said prosecutors last year investigated 10,315
cases of commercial bribery cases committed by government workers, involving a
total sum of more than 2.1 billion yuan (309 million U.S. dollars).
