CPC graft watchdog stronger and cleaner

BEIJING - The Communist Party of China's (CPC) graft watchdog is tougher and fitter than ever, a senior official said Wednesday.

Chen Wenqing, deputy secretary of the CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI), was talking about restructuring the anti-corruption body in an interview on the CCDI website, and hoped the improvements mirrored suggestions CPC General Secretary Xi Jinping made at a meeting in January.

Sharing one organizational structure, the CCDI and Supervision Ministry have integrated six departments into three and established three new offices, including two discipline inspectorates and one to supervise the discipline inspectors themselves. The changes will allow the organization to deal more easily with new situations and missions.

Streamlining and integration mean that, despite the new offices, the organization's overall size remains unchanged. More departments and personnel are now doing anticorruption work, the primary task of the body, and the responsibilities of each department have been clarified and more clearly delineated.

With the new office supervising officers themselves and a new organizational department, formerly the personnel division, the graft watchdog has strengthened its internal procedures.

Chen said publicity of the institutional changes was an invitation to public supervision.