China has solved 76 commercial bribery cases related to large
state-owned enterprises in an intensive inspection campaign, with
about 18 million yuan (US$2.4 million) involved, according to the
country's state-owned assets watchdog.
Sixty-six people have been given criminal punishments and 28
administrative penalties, said the State-owned Assets Supervision
and Administration Commission of the State Council.
The cases came to light after the commission ordered large
state-owned enterprises to carry out self-inspection of commercial
bribery between April and December last year.
Commercial bribery usually refers to bribes offered by companies
to government officials or state-owned enterprises in exchange for
special favors.
The campaign mainly targeted property right transfer,
construction projects and material and equipment procurement, the
commission said.
Property right transfer has been a major target in the fight
against commercial bribery among state-owned enterprises in
China.
"The self-inspection campaign reviewed all the 1,198 property
transfers from the beginning of 2005 till the end of last year,"
said an official with the commission.
Last year, the commission and the Ministry of Finance jointly
issued a notice to further regulate the approval of state-owned
property right transfer and bottom prices.
In addition, regional state-owned assets watchdogs have
sanctioned 65 property right trading centers in a bid to regulate
property right transactions.
A monitoring system linking these trading centers with
state-owned assets watchdogs in Beijing, Shanghai and Tianjin has
been established to enable the watchdogs monitor all the
transactions and unified release of property right transfer
information in the future.
(Xinhua News Agency July 13, 2007)
