Shanghai will conduct a thorough auditing of four major areas which include finance, state assets, social welfare fund and local leaders' accounts, said a senior official Monday.
Vice Mayor Chen Liangyu stressed that complete and comprehensive auditing in these fields will help prevent state assets from losing value and more importantly help combat corruption.
In the field of finance, Shanghai will step up monitoring over government purchasing and speed up the construction of a public financing framework, in an effort to make more efficient use of the fund.
Carrying regular auditing over local leaders' accounts will be gradually established as a routine in years to come, he said.
He stressed that any treacherous acts to evade tax and bank loans should be severely punished.
A total of 26.27 billion yuan (US$3.17 billion) of illegal money was uncovered last year in the city.
(Xinhua 03/06/2001)