Corruption Crackdown Gathers PaceCorruption will be fought at all levels in road building departments of the Ministry of Communications, an urgent circular issued on Thursday said.The circular was released at a time when the number of corruption cases involving road communication staff came under the spotlight because of mounting nationwide anti-corruption campaigns. Already this year, dozens of officials from provincial communication bureaux have been jailed. Most had embezzled road construction funds or received bribes when authorizing bidding projects. Zhang Kuntong, former director of Henan Communication Bureau and Li Zhongshan, former director of Sichuan Communication Bureau, were all sent to prison for arbitrarily giving building projects to certain companies after receiving huge sums of money. The ministry will first increase its supervision of senior officials who play key roles in authorizing construction projects. If any projects they authorized are later found to have involved corruption, the officials will take responsibility for neglecting their duties even if they have retired or have been transferred to other jobs, the circular said. Any official considered to be incompetent by a third of the participants of an annual working conference will be automatically removed from their posts. A new set of regulations on the project authorization process is expected to be released soon, which will help limit officials' roles in authorizing building projects. In the very near future, the market, not local communication officials, will play the crucial role in assessing suitability for projects, the circular said. The ministry asked local bureaux to maintain a high-level transparency when selecting companies for building projects, informing people of the reasons behind their choice. The ministry reaffirmed in the circular that spouses or children of senior officials within the ministry cannot be hired in the sector, and special supervision teams will review the implementation of this regulation regularly. In accordance with the development of China's market economy, the ministry will continue standardizing road transport and all companies which meet the ministry's regulations can bid to start up passenger and cargo transport companies. Concrete regulations and not personal factors will determine whether companies are qualified to carry out road-building projects, the circular said. The Ministry of Communications invests tens of billions US dollars a year nationwide on road building. Official messages from the State Council said road construction will still be one of the top priorities of the 10th Five-Year Plan, between 2001 and 2005. |
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