Anti-graft official in vice probe

An anti-graft official in Sichuan province has been placed under investigation after he was caught soliciting a prostitute.

The probe into Liu Rui, former director of Deyang city's discipline inspection commission, was announced on Thursday, a day after the country's core leadership called for more supervision of officials involved in the crackdown on corruption.

Liu, 53, was still head of the anti-graft watchdog when he committed serious disciplinary violations, namely soliciting a sex worker, according to Li Yong, a spokesman for the city government.

The Sichuan Commission for Discipline Inspection, which released the news of the investigation, said it had no further comment on the case when contacted by China Daily.

The Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, the core leadership, held a meeting on Wednesday to step up the anti-corruption campaign, especially in terms of supervising disciplinary officials.

Anti-graft agencies and supervision departments at different levels should accept oversight from the Party, the public and the media, and improve self-supervision, the Politburo said in a statement after the meeting.

China should also push forward reform of the State supervision system, it added.

The Central Commission for Disciplinary Inspection, the top-level watchdog, is expected to hold its seventh plenary meeting from Jan 6 to 8.

Wang Qishan, head of the CCDI, has pledged that his agency will close loopholes in the system to ensure officials are loyal and clean.

"We should provide a suitable answer to the question of who can supervise discipline inspection commissions," he was quoted as saying in a Dec 6 statement on the CCDI website.

The anti-corruption agency is expected to draft guidelines next year to steer the work of discipline watchdogs at all levels, according to the same statement.

The CCDI said it has punished 38 discipline officials working at the national level since November 2012, when the Party held its 18th Party Congress. Seventeen of them were placed under investigation over allegations of serious disciplinary violations.

Meanwhile, disciplinary agencies at all levels nationwide punished a total of more than 7,200 employees involved in the crackdown on corruption over the same period, according to the statement.

Huang Zhiling contributed to this story.

xuwei@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 12/30/2016 page5)