China discipline watchdog's spending drops

BEIJING - Spending by the Communist Party of China's (CPC) discipline watchdog has dropped sharply amid efforts to improve work style and fight corruption, a report said on Tuesday.

The CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) and the Ministry of Supervision have cut their conference expenditure for the first eight months this year by 84 percent and reception expenses by 52 percent, according to a report issued by the CCDI.

The agency also squeezed time for conferences and symposiums. A nationwide conference for the agency took only 20 minutes, the report said.

Departments under the agency have been streamlined to improve work efficiency, it added.

At the end of 2012, the CPC leadership began to promote an "eight-point" set of guidelines to ban extravagance and formalism from events attended by officials. Inspectors were sent to find clues of corruption and wrongdoing in various ministries and provincial regions.

The CCDI is taking the lead in implementing the "eight-point" guidelines, the report said.

The discipline agency also set strict controls on overseas tours. During the first eight months this year, the number of groups traveling abroad dropped by 26.4 percent and the number of people by 16.8 percent.

As an attempt to curb bribery, the CCDI issued a circular in May requiring officials and employees working in disciplinary departments to discard "all kinds of membership cards received in various names."

By June 20, all current staff, or about 810,000 people, had submitted reports to prove that they were no longer holders of such cards, according to the report.

The spending cut came in line with a "mass-line" campaign launched in June to boost ties between CPC officials and the public, while cleaning up undesirable work styles such as formalism, bureaucracy, hedonism and extravagance.

The campaign's guidance group has issued a circular urging a slash to rampant conferences and appraisals as well as firm punishment for corrupt behavior such as sending and receiving gifts in official events, taking government vehicles for private use and building luxurious government buildings.

The circular also pledged punishment for projects that are launched and built principally to crown the performance of officials rather than in the interests of the people.

Also targeted in the campaign were behaviors impairing people's interests concerning land exploration and removal of residents, agriculture, litigation, work safety, food and drug safety, environmental protection and public health, according to the circular.

It called for long-term mechanisms to be built and rigidly implemented to stem the deep-rooted factors that lead to undesirable work styles and regulate officials in their anti-decadence drive.