The newly established National Bureau of Corruption Prevention
(NBCP) aims to address the lack of preventive policies against
corruption in private companies and non-governmental agencies, the
NBCP head said on Tuesday.
"Corruption not only occurs in government departments but also
in companies and non-governmental organizations. No specific
department was responsible for drawing up preventive policies for
them and monitoring their implementation until the NBCP was set
up," said Ma Wen, the NBCP head and also Minister of
Supervision, in an interview with Xinhua on Tuesday.
According to the Ministry of Supervision, the authority had
investigated 24,879 cases of commercial bribery, involving 6.16
billion yuan (US$819.15 million), by June this year.
Local media reported earlier that French Supermarket chain
Carrefour and Germany-based Siemens both had Chinese employees
involved in commercial bribery.
One of the NBCP's major tasks is to expand the preventive
network to every corner of Chinese society, Ma said.
The NBCP will work out guidelines on corruption prevention for
companies and public undertakings, help trade organizations develop
a self-discipline system, put forward policies guarding against
commercial bribery and initiate publicity campaigns on corruption
prevention.
"Corruption prevention is a cause that every citizen in the
society should be engaged in," Ma said.
She listed several problems in the country's corruption
prevention work. Besides a lack of preventive policies for the
non-government sector, the country also needed a coordinator among
relevant departments and professional think tank to collect
information, analyze policy risks and work out targeted preventive
measures, she said.
"The establishment of the NBCP has undergone careful research
and discussion for four years since China signed the United Nations
Convention Against Corruption," she said.
The UN convention, adopted at the 58th session of the UN General
Assembly in 2003, included an item that all parties should set up a
corruption prevention body.
(Xinhua News Agency September 19, 2007)