Almost 200 penalized for discipline violations in China quake relief
10/9/2008 17:24
A total of 186 people had incurred Party disciplinary measures or
administrative penalties as of Aug. 29 for discipline violations in relief work
after the May 12 earthquake in southwest China, today's People's Daily
reported.
Sixteen were officials at or above the county level and 20 have
been stripped of their posts, the newspaper quoted Ma Wen, Minister of
Supervision, as saying. The newspaper didn't say what the violations
were.
Senior Chinese officials have called for tighter supervision of quake
relief work and warned repeatedly that corruption, embezzlement or misuse of
relief resources would incur severe punishment.
Ma, also deputy secretary of
the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the Communist Party of
China, said the commission had dispatched five teams of inspectors to Sichuan,
Gansu and Shaanxi provinces, government departments and social organizations to
make sure that relief funds, food, donations and subsidies were used
properly.
Complaint hotlines and mail boxes have been set up in the quake
zone and the Chinese public were encouraged to report violations and misconduct
involving relief work.
Ma said as of Aug. 29, discipline and supervision
authorities at all levels had received 15,746 complaints and 10,151 had been
investigated and concluded.
China's National Audit Office (NAO) also joined
the supervision efforts by sending more than 10,000 auditors to affected areas
and departments.
The auditors have scrutinized almost 20,000 departments and
organizations, 2,600 towns and 5,700 villages and visited 45,000 quake-affected
families, the newspaper quoted chief auditor Liu Jiayi as saying.
The NAO
announced in early August that no serious violations were found in the
management of relief funds and supplies for survivors of the
earthquake.
However, problems did exist. Some donations were misused, while
others were not being allocated or had extra fees attached, the NAO said in a
statement.
For example, in Caojiagou Village in northwestern Shaanxi
Province, 85 households were charged a total of 187,000 yuan (US$27,339) in
so-called "construction planning fees" or "reconstruction guarantee
money".
The NAO found 36 such violations and all 21 people responsible had
been disciplined by the Party or had administrative punishments, according to
the NAO.
The magnitude-8.0 earthquake struck Wenchuan County, Sichuan
Province, on May 12. It is feared that once the fate of all those listed as
missing is clarified, the death toll will top 87,000.
The estimated losses
from the quake are estimated at 845.1 billion yuan (US$121 billion).
The
central and local governments have allocated a combined 67.47 billion yuan for
quake relief. According to the Ministry of Civil Affairs, domestic and foreign
donations had reached 59.25 billion yuan in cash and goods by Aug. 4. Of this,
22.88 billion yuan had been forwarded to quake-hit areas.
Xinhua
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