The Supreme People's Procuratorate held a joint meeting yesterday with sixteen other relevant central ministries to discuss the prevention and punishment of corrupt officials who have misused their power in office. At the meeting, the Procuratorate reported results of the central investigation of corrupt individuals who disrupted the order of the socialist market economy - more than 6,600 officials faced the consequences of their illegal actions.

The investigational procedures to bring corrupt officials to justice began in July 2005 and ended at the end of 2006. Four thousand eight hundred eighty-one cases and 5,556 state officials were punished for abusing their power and bringing about large economic losses. Three hundred thirty-three cases and 375 officials with supervisory responsibilities were found guilty of bending the laws for friends and relatives, and embezzlement. Six hundred twenty-seven cases and 733 individuals from judicial and administrative departments were involved in embezzlement and other related crimes. Among those convicted, 218 of them were officials who had positions above the county level, including eleven provincial officials. These cases of corruption cases unequivocally resulted in a total economic loss of 6.91 billion Yuan.

By People's Daily Online