Ninety-five corruption cases involving nearly 24 million yuan (US$2.9 million) were uncovered in Shanghai in the first three months of this year, the Shanghai People's Procuratorate announced yesterday.

One-hundred-and-three people will be prosecuted for embezzling public funds, taking bribes, misusing public money or giving bribes.

Among them, 22 cases were related to officials above division chief level -- considered important corruption cases -- and 83 were related to cases involving over 100,000 yuan (US$12,000).

Zhu Bochen, director of the Political Department of the procuratorate, said the percentage of important and big corruption cases uncovered by Shanghai prosecutors was comparatively higher than the national average.

"But it doesn't mean more or worse corruption is occurring in the city," said Zhu.

"Shanghai has been witnessing an economic boom in the past year and we always put more effort into big cases."

Shen Jianxin, deputy director of the Anti-Corruption Bureau under the procuratorate, refused to release any details about the cases, explaining that this might prejudice further investigations.

But he disclosed that most cases were with the city's Party and government organizations and State-owned enterprises involved in construction projects.

Among the 95 corruption cases, 62 of them involved giving and taking bribes -- higher than usual, said Shen.

"There's also been bribery in infrastructure projects, which usually involves a big amount of money," he added.

Shen said prosecutors have been focusing their efforts on catching the main people who authorize the bribes.

"People usually give bribes to many departments and many people in charge of the project instead of one in order to get the bid or buy materials at a lower price."

The procuratorate announced tougher action to fight corruption earlier this year.

Wu Guangyu, director of the procuratorate, said in a regular meeting of the Shanghai Municipal People's Congress that prosecutors in Shanghai would put more effort into investigating crimes relating to civil servants misusing their power.

"We will try not to miss even one big case in spite of any difficulties," said Wu.

(China Daily April 15, 2005)