China's Ministry of Supervision on Wednesday announced the discipline watchdog will open the unified national informant hotline "12388" on June 26 for the public to report discipline offences of civil servants and officials.

The hotline will also collect suggestions on building a clean government and Party and in combating corruption.

Since 1988, supervision departments and discipline watchdogs nationwide have established informant hotlines one after another, accepting a large number of public complaints and helping relevant departments uncover valuable clues.

The hotlines had broadened public channels to supervise officials and played an important role in the battle against corruption.

However, the situation was that different places used different hotlines, something that caused inconvenience for informants to remember and use, said a Ministry of Supervision official.

Some supervision departments and discipline watchdogs had failed to have an exclusive phone number for receiving complaints of discipline violation, but instead used their ordinary office phones to handle the calls, a situation which affected the efficiency of dealing with complaints.

The official said after the unified informants' hotline was opened, relevant officials must ensure the number could be reached at any time, and must carefully accept and deal with public's complaints on civil servant's discipline violation.

The official said relevant departments should intensify the crackdown against discipline violation and encourage the informant to give his or her name, at the same time keeping their personal information confidential.

Anyone who disclosed the personal information of, or retaliated against an informant would be severely dealt with, he added.

(Xinhua News Agency June 26, 2008)