Anti-graft bureau seeks your help
By Echo Wang |
June 24, 2010, Thursday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
CHINA'S anti-corruption authority is seeking public suggestions through the Internet on how to curb junkets for officials, the first time policymakers sought Netizens' opinions for corruption prevention.
The National Bureau of Corruption Prevention put the questionnaire on its Website (www.nbcp.gov.cn) yesterday. For one month it will collect people's suggestions, which will be considered in anti-corruption policy making.
Lavish "business" trips for Chinese officials have long been criticized but junkets were still a common perk for Chinese officials. Prime Minister Wen Jiabao warned government officials to lead austere lives in March after several extravagant official business trips came to light.
The latest scandal came last year when six court officials in South China's Guangzhou City were revealed by netizens to have gone for a two-week luxury trip to Turkey, Egypt and South Africa, spending 80,000 yuan (US$11,740) each of public money.
The junket also included a stop in Dubai. Similar traveling package were sold for less than 20,000 yuan, but the Guangzhou maritime court insisted that the spending was normal and within budgets.
Twenty-three officials from Wenzhou City, Zhejiang Province, were also punished in late 2008 after an Internet user posted their itinerary of a "business trip" to the United States and Canada.
They spent over 650,000 yuan to visit Niagara Falls, Las Vegas and Hawaii.
The questionnaire sparked a heated discussion online.
Many said the bureau's move was admirable while some others said they doubt the gesture would make any real change.
Ten Anhui Province prosecutors grabbed worldwide attention in 2007 when they were denied entry to Finland and were repatriated because they were holding a forged invitation letter for a business trip, Xinhua reported.
The vice head of Anhui People's Procuratorate who headed the group was fired and expelled from the Communist Party of China.
China reportedly spent over 900 billion yuan of tax payers' money on official business trips, government cars, and banquets every year.
In contrast, China's education budget in 2010 was only 61 billion yuan.
The National Bureau of Corruption Prevention put the questionnaire on its Website (www.nbcp.gov.cn) yesterday. For one month it will collect people's suggestions, which will be considered in anti-corruption policy making.
Lavish "business" trips for Chinese officials have long been criticized but junkets were still a common perk for Chinese officials. Prime Minister Wen Jiabao warned government officials to lead austere lives in March after several extravagant official business trips came to light.
The latest scandal came last year when six court officials in South China's Guangzhou City were revealed by netizens to have gone for a two-week luxury trip to Turkey, Egypt and South Africa, spending 80,000 yuan (US$11,740) each of public money.
The junket also included a stop in Dubai. Similar traveling package were sold for less than 20,000 yuan, but the Guangzhou maritime court insisted that the spending was normal and within budgets.
Twenty-three officials from Wenzhou City, Zhejiang Province, were also punished in late 2008 after an Internet user posted their itinerary of a "business trip" to the United States and Canada.
They spent over 650,000 yuan to visit Niagara Falls, Las Vegas and Hawaii.
The questionnaire sparked a heated discussion online.
Many said the bureau's move was admirable while some others said they doubt the gesture would make any real change.
Ten Anhui Province prosecutors grabbed worldwide attention in 2007 when they were denied entry to Finland and were repatriated because they were holding a forged invitation letter for a business trip, Xinhua reported.
The vice head of Anhui People's Procuratorate who headed the group was fired and expelled from the Communist Party of China.
China reportedly spent over 900 billion yuan of tax payers' money on official business trips, government cars, and banquets every year.
In contrast, China's education budget in 2010 was only 61 billion yuan.
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