China to watch out for corruption in SOE stimulus projects

Special Report:Global Financial Crisis

BEIJING, Feb. 8 (Chinese media) -- China's state assets

watchdog will closely watch over projects implemented by state-owned

enterprises(SOEs) in the country's massive stimulus package to prevent

corruption, an official said here Sunday.

The State-owned Assets Supervision and Management

Commission (SASAC) will strictly look into the progress and fund use of projects

by SOEs directly under the central government, said the SASAC director Li

Rongrong.

Many projects are estimated to see over tens of

millions of yuan put in, making it a more important task to fend off corruption,

he said at an SOE meeting on disciplinary inspection work.

China unveiled a stimulus package with a total

investment of 4 trillion yuan (586 billion U.S. dollars) in November to boost

domestic demand and offset the world economic slowdown.

Of the total, 100 billion yuan had been allocated by

the central government by the end of last year.

Li said inspectors will particularly focus on

projects in such sectors as power grids, telecommunications, transportation,

equipment, construction and metallurgy.

The SASAC will also check whether the projects cause

environmental hazards, consume too much energy and resources or result in

excessive capacity, said Li.

A total of 4,960 Chinese officials above the county

level were punished in a year ending November 2008, data show. They were

involved in corruption and commercial bribes, hurting people's interests.