Premier Calls for Intensifying Anti-Corruption Efforts ����Premier Zhu Rongji told government bodies at all levels January 26 to be strict in running the government and to wipe out corruption by instituting an effective mechanism to build a cleaner and more honest government. ����"We shall never fail the expectations of the people and tasks bestowed by history," he said at an anti-corruption conference of the State Council, China's cabinet, attended by vice-premiers, ministers and top disciplinary officials of the Communist Party of China. ����Since its inauguration in March last year, the government has listed the anti-corruption drive as one of its top priorities, Zhu said. ����The drastic restructuring of the State Council has been carried out smoothly and many organizations have been streamlined and their personnel reduced, he said. ����The central government also took measures to step up anti-corruption efforts by introducing new mechanisms such as abolishing the affiliations between government and businesses. ����Zhu also warned that there are still many problems facing the building of a clean and honest government, and specified extravagance, government waste, embezzlement, distortion of the law, and arbitrary fines and fee collections as among the most prominent. ����"Some officials working at the grass-roots level have also been found to be rude and violent in their work or even bullying the masses," he noted. ����To solve these problems, Zhu detailed his anti-corruption plans for the cabinet members and local administrative bodies across the country: ����-- The results achieved in the restructuring of the State Council should be consolidated while advancing the restructuring of local governments. Government functions and working style must be changed along with the restructuring. Local governments must also formulate their codes of conduct and publish them for public supervision; ����-- Efforts shall be focused on self-discipline among top government officials. They must also look into the conduct of their spouses, children and secretaries. ����-- Government supervisory departments shall intensify their crackdown on illegal activities of officials at and above the county level, and of those in economic regulating bodies and administrative law-enforcement agencies. ����-- Special campaigns shall be launched to address heated public complaints against certain administrative law-enforcement agencies, government-monopoly industries, and public service departments. ����-- As the army, armed police, judiciary and government bodies at the national level have severed their ties with business operations, local governments should also follow suit by producing their specific timetables for so doing. ����Zhu said it is required that government bodies shall observe the Party's new anti-corruption responsibility system, which stipulates that a top official be held responsible for major corruption cases in the institution under his charge. HomeNews 1999-01-27 Page1 Full Story in Chinese