China recovers US$4.62 bln from corruption
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China's prosecutors have recovered a total of 31.26 billion yuan (4.62 billion U.S. dollars) through investigation and prosecution of corruption and bribery cases from 2005 to May of this year, according to the Supreme People's Procuratorate (SPP).
Procuratorial departments nationwide placed 146,570 corruption and bribery cases on file involving more than 170,000 people, according to figures released at a national conference to fight corruption and work-related crimes held Wednesday.
Among those investigated, 13,192 officials were at or above the county level. Further, 8,776 of the total number of cases on file involved funds of more than 1 million yuan, according to the SPP.
The prosecution offices apprehended 6,148 fugitives in connection to corruption and bribery cases during this period, including 71 who were then living abroad.
"Embezzlement and bribery cases are becoming more complicated, covert and are carried out in more intelligent ways," and they usually "involve a greater sum of money covering more fields," according to a statement by the SPP's anti-corruption bureau released at the conference.
The prosecution offices will improve efforts on handling major power-for-money corruption cases, especially those related to high-ranking officials and with greater amounts of money involved.
They would also "crack down on embezzlement and bribery crimes which led to group incidents and major accidents to defuse conflicts and sustain stability," it said.
In the future, prosecutors would intensify their investigation of such cases in fields including project construction, real estate development, land management, exploration of mineral resources, state assets management, and the financial and judicial sectors, the statement said.
The prosecution offices have decided to innovate their means of investigation by "going digital" to cope with new situations, according to the SPP.
They will build a better online database to take advantage of a faster flow and more efficient availability of information.
They will also promote the establishment of online facilities to enable different authorities to share information on population flow, household registration, vehicle management, entry and exit permits, verdicts, taxation, real estate, insurance and civil aviation, it said.
To step up the fight against corruption, the SPP was also working to help make public a bribery blacklist to be incorporated into the country's legislation.
The procuratorial agencies put a list of those convicted of bribery online on Jan. 1, 2006, making such information available for public inquiry.
Listed are individuals or organizations that have been convicted of bribery or bribery-related crimes since 1997 in the five sectors of construction, finance, education, health and government procurement.
The SPP expanded the inquiry to all sectors, apart from the previous five, in September 2009.
The investigation and prevention of crimes of corruption, dereliction of duty, power abuse and rights violations will be put in a more prominent position and a mechanism for punishment and prevention should be established, the SPP said.
Also, the prosecution offices had handled an increasing number of cases of dereliction of duty and rights violation during the past five years.
Figures indicate they investigated 47,460 people in 37,745 such cases from 2005 to May of this year.
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