Inner Mongolia’s anti-corruption drive nets $335 million

(chinadaily.com.cn)

Updated: 2016-08-29

In the past five years, prosecutors from China’s Inner Mongolia autonomous region have cracked down on corrupt officials violating austerity rules. To date, 7,721 officials have been reprimanded in 4,603 cases, netting 2.24 billion yuan ($335 million) back.

Amongst these cases of graft, around 358 county-level administrators and 36 municipal-level officials were netted in the anti-corruption drive. During 2015, the number of bribery cases saw a sharp increase of 82.9 percent compared to 2011, according to the local discipline inspection authorities.

The chief prosecutor of the People's Procuratorate of Inner Mongolia autonomous region, Ma Yongsheng, said that the regional prosecutors have pledged that the investigation and punishment of graft will continue and ought to be intensified during the period of the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-2020). Also, the local disciplinary departments should probe the origins of embezzlement and investigate the misuse of power, applying penalties for anyone benefiting from ill-gotten gains.

In 2012, President Xi Jinping made tackling corruption a top priority, saying the government would fight graft relentlessly and impose strict supervision of Party members. In 2013, Xi said every Party member is subject to Party discipline and supervision, irrespective of whether they are a "tiger" (a high-ranking official) or a "fly" (those at the lower levels).

Since then, cases have been filed in 31 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities; whilst a number of sectors including the environment, sports, state-owned enterprises, financial institutes, and legal authorities, have also seen a rise in the number of cases of corruption.

• 0