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 Anti-graft inspectors are targeting 53 strategic central
government-owned groups, where top executives hold the rank of
deputy government ministers, a state industry source familiar with
the matter told Reuters.
Chinese President Xi Jinping has warned that the problem of official
graft is serious enough to threaten the Communist Party's legitimacy
and has vowed to go after powerful "tigers" as well as lowly
"flies".
Graft-busters have gone after business leaders and politicians
alike. On Friday, one of the country's top spy chiefs became the
latest official to be caught in the dragnet, signaling that the
boldest crackdown on corruption in decades had spilled over into
China's powerful intelligence apparatus.
The Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI), the ruling
Communist Party's top anti-corruption body, said it would inspect
all central government state-owned enterprises (SOEs) this year, the
official Xinhua News Agency reported on Wednesday.
In November, the CCDI announced it had dispatched teams to eight big
SOEs, including China Southern Airlines Co <600029.SS>, China Unicom
<0762.HK>, Dongfeng Motor Corp <0489.HK> and China Petroleum &
Chemical Corp, or Sinopec <600028.SS>.
On Friday, the anti-graft body said it would prosecute Zong Xinhua,
the former head of China Unicom's e-commerce and information
technology unit.
China Southern Chief Financial Officer Xu Jiebo along with three
other top executives at the carrier were put under investigation and
sacked for suspected criminal wrongdoing earlier this month.
The SOE anti-graft efforts coincide with China's imminent roll-out
of ambitious new guidelines to overhaul the country's inefficient
state sector.
The State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC),
the ministry-level body that directly oversees 112 central
government industrial and service conglomerates, is expected to
publish the reform plans before the end of March.
"Currently the anti-corruption fight at central SOEs remains severe
and complicated," SASAC Chairman Zhang Yi said at an internal
meeting last year, according to a post on the CCDI’s website earlier
this month.
The SASAC needs to be the "eyes" of the Party and stand in the
"vanguard" to curb the spread of corruption, Zhang said.
On Tuesday, Xi told a meeting of anti-graft authorities that they
must step-up supervision, inspection and audits of state-owned
enterprises and strengthen the Party's control over those firms.
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"State-owned assets and resources are hard-earned, the shared wealth
of the people of this country," Xi said, according to the official
People's Daily.
"We must complete the state asset supervision system to toughen
oversight of departments and positions that are rich with power,
capital and resources," he said.
Anti-corruption efforts at China's most strategic conglomerates are
likely to be part of an ongoing campaign rather than a one-time
event, the state industry source said.
AVOIDING LOSSES
Anti-graft authorities have sent inspection teams into 36 central
government-owned state conglomerates over the last two years,
placing 21 executives under investigation for wrongdoing, according
to statistics compiled by Reuters.
In December, the SASAC held a general meeting to discuss a key
document concerning the role of company insiders and avoiding the
loss of state assets during SOE reforms, the government body said in
an online statement early this month.
Those plans are expected to encourage the separation of business
from politics through the appointment of independent company
management and boards of directors, answerable to independent state
asset managers.
The government is expected to promote so-called "mixed ownership" by
backing the sale of enterprise stakes to portfolio and private
investors.
(Reporting By Matthew Miller and Beijing Newsroom; Additional
reporting by Fang Yan; Editing by Jeremy Laurence)
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