Corruption cases rise 24%

Luxury items given as bribes to government officials will be auctioned in Wenzhou, East China's Zhejiang province, according to local anti-graft officials, on May 4, 2013. [Photo/Asianewsphoto]

Procuratorate agencies investigated 8,222 corruption cases in the first quarter of this year, up by 24 percent year-on-year, the Supreme People's Procuratorate said on Wednesday.

China cracks down on graft

Those cases involve 10,840 officials, an increase of 19.8 percent. Major cases take up 82.2 percent of the total, numbering 6,759. Among the officials investigated, 57 are above the bureau level, the SPP said.

In the first three months, prosecutors nationwide also handled 2,245 cases of dereliction of duty, up by 10.2 percent.

A total of 1,270 of those cases are major cases involving officials whose levels are higher than or equal to the county head. Bureau level officials investigated have increased year on year by 750 percent to 17.