(People’s Daily, Global Times)
BEIJING: China will strengthen its anti-graft mechanism and create an environment which discourages corrupt practices among government officials, a spokeswoman for China’s top legislature said on Wednesday.
In order to better fight corruption, the government has to address not only the symptoms but also the root causes, in order to further improve the anti-graft mechanism, Fu Ying, spokeswoman for the third session of the 12th National People’s Congress (NPC), told a press conference on Wednesday, ahead of the annual session of the NPC that begins on Thursday.
Fu took the revised Budget Law as an example, saying that the revised law requires all government income to be included in its budget in a bid to strengthen supervision over public officials.
The revised law, which took effect on January 1, breaks down the government budget in four parts: the general budget, the budget for government-managed funds, the budget for State-owned assets and the budget for social insurance funds. All four parts would be subject to tight supervision, the Xinhua News Agency reported.
China is also revising its Criminal Law. A draft of the ninth amendment imposes harsher penalties on embezzlement and bribery, Fu said, adding that offering bribes to close relatives of officials would be considered a crime as well.
Apart from building an institutional mechanism, China is also working to establish a global anti-graft cooperation network and considering a regulation on international criminal and judicial cooperation, Fu said.
The goal is to make the full use of international law and mechanisms, to punish corrupt officials no matter where they flee to, Fu said.
