Beijing has recovered as much as 700 million yuan (US$84 million) in a 1-year-old campaign against corruption, China News Service reported Monday.
The effort, begun last year, involved 760 probes of allegations of wrongdoing in Communist Party and governmental organizations, judicial and administrative bodies and finance departments.
Misdeeds in the commercial, medical and real estate fields as well as in State-owned enterprises also were targeted.
Indeed, about 60 per cent of job-related crimes in Beijing from January 2000 through September 2001 were committed by leading officials of State-owned enterprises, a report indicated.
The anti-corruption bureau of Beijing Procuratorate said a surge in such problems has come since reform and restructuring of State-owned enterprises started two years ago.
More than 510 officials of State-owned enterprises in capital industries were found involved in practicing graft and receiving bribes, accounting for more than 60 per cent of all such cases.
The increase of such crimes was attributed to a lack of efficient supervision in businesses where usually the top leaders themselves choose members of the supervision departments.
The amount of money involved in on-the-job crime in Beijing is increasing, the report quoted Feng Wensheng, the deputy chief procurator of Beijing Procuratorate, as saying.
Since last year, there have been 102 cases involving more than 1 million yuan (US$120,000), with 240 million yuan (US$29 million) being the largest single amount, Feng said.
Beijing isn't the only region enjoying success in this battle.
The People's Procuratorate of Foshan in South China's Guangdong Province released information on 14 key cases involving job-related crimes on Monday.
Some key city officials, such as former finance bureau chief Kuang Xin and Zhang Baisen, former president of the China Construction Bank Foshan Branch, were allegedly involved in graft and public fund misuse activities.
Kuang, during his duty, is accused of stealing 1.2 million yuan (US$145,000) received from enterprises. He also bought cars for his children and son-in-law with public funds, the report claimed.
In the first nine months of 2001, the Foshan procuratorial department probed 68 cases of job-related crimes involving 84 people.
To date, 51 people have been brought to court and more than 2.6 million yuan (US$320,000) has been retrieved.
( October 31, 2001)
