While other crimes are investigated by public security departments, cases of bribery, corruption and nonfeasance should be investigated by public prosecutors, according to China's Code of Criminal Procedure.

The daily noted that a significant problem is that many corrupt officials transfer embezzled money to places other than where they live or work.

The Supreme People's Procuratorate has told public prosecutors' offices at all levels to establish investigation centers.

The aim is to set up a national investigative network for better co-operation between different provinces.

Guan Youren, former head of the Shaoguan branch of the Guangdong Development Bank, is suspected of having embezzled more than 24 million Yuan (US$2.9 million) in public funds. Guan allegedly absconded with the embezzled funds in November last year.

Acting upon a request from their colleagues in South China's Guangdong Province, public prosecutors in East China's Zhejiang Province worked together with local police officers to track down and arrest Guan.

In Southwest China's Sichuan Province, public prosecutors have arrested 57 suspects and confiscated embezzled funds worth nearly 34 million Yuan (US$4.1 million) in the first half of this year. Among the 57 suspects, 10 allegedly absconded with embezzled funds.

Public prosecutors of Sichuan Province helped other provinces catch six suspects in the first half of this year.

While public prosecutors are not strong enough on their own, an effective way of catching suspects has been co-operation with departments of public security, national security, postal services, telecommunications and frontier defense.

A major way in which such co-operation is put into practice is in the exchange of information on suspects and their connections.

Public prosecutors in Northeast China's Heilongjiang Province have put all relevant information on suspects into the database of the local public security departments so that they can co-operate easily every day.

( September 4, 2002)