Representative offices of discipline inspection and supervision departments will be put under the direct control of the central disciplinary departments this year to improve the country's supervision mechanism and anti-corruption campaign."This policy is very important for strengthening supervision over cadres of the governmental departments and pushing forward anti-corruption work," said an official in charge of the issue.The move is the implementation of the decision made by the 15th Central Committee of Communist Party of China (CPC) at its Sixth Plenary Session in 2001.

In the past, representative offices of discipline inspection departments were under the leadership of both the governmental departments where the offices are located and the CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection. The close relationship between the representative offices and the governmental departments weakened the power of supervision and made the anti-corruption campaign very difficult.

The direct control over the representative offices will help to keep the independence of the offices from the governmental departments, increase the power of supervision and improve the nation's supervision mechanism, said the official.

Since 2002, the CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and the Ministry of Supervision have launched a pilot program in eight central government departments including the Ministry of Health and the State Development and Reform Commission to experiment on direct control of representative offices under the two central institutions.

After the direct control is implemented, the representative offices would be mainly responsible for supervising the governmental departments' implementation of the CPC's policies and decisions and following of the state laws and regulations. They are also responsible for the implementation of the decisions and orders of the State Council, and to inspect whether the officials strictly follow the political discipline of the CPC.

Though the duties are similar with the past, the supervision function is strengthened, said the official.Apart from the direct control, the CPC Central Committee has decided to send special inspection teams to carry out inspections once or twice every five years in 31 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities.

Corruption has become a serious problem in China worrying Chinese leaders. Earlier this year, Premier Wen Jiabao said that the Chinese government during his tenure will take it as one of its most essential tasks to further step up the fight against corruption, as it is a "life-or-death" issue for the future of the Communist Party of China and the Chinese government

Source: Xinhua