SOEs take measures to reduce graft

Major companies in the energy sector said they are rectifying problems found during inspections

More than 40 officials in the State-run China National Offshore Oil Corp have quit their jobs in the last decade and used their connections to improve the profitability of their own firms, according to the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection.

China's top anti-graft authority published the finding on its website on Monday after completing inspection tours at 25 major State-own enterprises.

The corporation, the largest offshore oil and gas producer in China, said it rectified the wrongdoings and issued regulations prohibiting the corporation as well as its affiliates from doing business with any organization in which their former officials have shares, hold posts or act as an agent for three years after they quit.

In addition, the corporation and its affiliates are prohibited from deals with those organizations without a competitive bidding procedure.

But exceptions are allowed if the procurement body or supervising department of the corporation and its affiliates approve the deal and report the exception to the supervising body.

More SOEs in the energy sector are ready to recognize their irregularities and mend fences.

China National Petroleum Corp, China's largest oil and gas producer and supplier, said on Monday that 129 officials in charge of departments at the corporation were found from January to July to have been involved in misconduct.

The CNPC said it issued 156 rectifying measures and pledged to create a clean business environment.

Dongfang Electric Corp, based in Chengdu, Sichuan province, which specializes in manufacturing, R & D and international engineering projects, also expressed its commitment to step up disciplinary efforts and combat irregularities.

The corporation said it received 160 cases of irregularities from the inspection team, which looked into the corporation's operations from March to May.

By the beginning of August, 95 people involved in 105 cases have been disciplined and seven of them have been handed over to judiciary departments.

Irregularities in the corporations' polycrystalline silicon project with a planned investment of 1.34 billion yuan ($ 211 million) was revealed during the inspection tour, and the corporation said one million yuan had been recovered from officials involved with misbehavior in the project.

In its first round of inspections from March to May, the commission investigated 25 large SOEs, including China Huaneng Group, State Grid Corp of China, China Power Investment and China Mobile Communications.

More inspection results and rectification measures from the companies will be published on the anti-graft body's website.

zhang_yi@chinadaily.com.cn