Chinese authorities launched a website to handle public complaints regarding irregular practices during the selection and appointment of Party and government officials.

The public is encouraged to log on to the website (www.12380.gov.cn), launched by the Organization Department of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, to report offences.

The site aims to improve public supervision and to ensure prompt detection and correction of offences involving official selection and appointment, the Organization Department said Thursday in a statement.

Complaints could be filed in anonymity, but real names were preferred, said the website. It requires informants to report problems truthfully and warns that fabrication and false charges could lead to legal punishment.

The website also said it mainly handles complaints about officials above the county level.

To prevent malicious or repetitious reporting and junk mail, informants can only submit a maximum of five complaints from one computer in a single day.

The Organization Department had already set up a report center for offences in official selection and appointment. In 2004, it opened an informant's hotline (12380).

(Xinhua News Agency February 27, 2009)