The Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) established a leading group Thursday, for the auditing of leading officers in the army, according to a decision made by the Central Military Commission (CMC).

About 1,000 leading officers, including more than 100 at army and divisional levels, will be audited this year, according to sources with the PLA headquarters.

One of the major tasks of the group is to curb corruption in a systematic way and ensure the officers to use their rights correctly, the sources said.

The members of the leading group come from the PLA's four general departments, respectively responsible for general staff, politics, logistics and armament.

The four departments should make joint efforts to promote the military auditing to a new level, said Liao Xilong, a CMC member, chief of the PLA General Logistic Department and head of the leading group.

Liao said in the coming five years, the military auditing will be conducted to see if there are any irregularities involving budgetary work, building projects, equipment procurement, investment, real estate projects, and profitable services.

He urged leading officers at all levels to distribute and manage military resources lawfully, rationally and efficiently.

This year, the PLA plans to audit a total of 983 leading officers, including 26 at army level, 135 at divisional level, and 822 at regimental level. So far, 639 officers of these officers have been audited.
 
On July 1, a senior Chinese military official asked the military to answer Chinese President Hu Jintao's call to fight corruption, following the exposure of one of the country's most serious military scandals.

"All levels of military personnel should earnestly study President Hu's speech, to raise the sense of responsibility of fulfilling our military's mission," said Xu Caihou, Vice Chairman of the CPC Central Military Commission.

Hu stressed on June 30 that the Party members should take effective measures and make painstaking efforts to combat corruption.

The call came a day after the former Deputy Commander of the Navy of PLA, Wang Shouye, was expelled from China's national legislature for taking bribes and other irregularities. The 62-year-old Wang had also been stripped of the military post.

"Because of my involvement in economic crimes, I had been stripped from the post of deputy navy commander and thus no longer has the qualification of being a deputy to NPC. Please take me off the position," Wang said in his resignation letter dated March 29, 2006.

(Xinhua News Agency July 21, 2006)