China's Minister of Construction has warned that the country's
real estate industry has become a hotbed for power-for-money
deals.
"The industry suffers institutional loopholes in preventing and
combating corruption, especially the collusion between government
officials and businesses," said Wang Guangtao at a recent conference on
building a clean and honest government.
"Some officials fail to discipline themselves and are living a
decadent life by seeking illegal profits at the price of the
general public's interests," Wang noted.
The ministry will stage special inspections on power-for-money
deals this year and watch for malpractice in property transactions
and real estate developments, he pledged.
It will also audit real estate development enterprises and
inspect all property projects under construction to make sure all
government officials embroiled with illegal deals would be punished
in line with laws, he said.?
Last year, 415 people in the construction sector were found to
have breached either laws or the ruling Communist Party's
disciplines. About 68 percent of them were in administrative
departments.
From January to July of 2006, China's procurators analyzed 1,608
commercial bribery cases in the construction sector, 26.3 percent
of the country's total commercial bribery cases for that
period.
(Xinhua News Agency February 19, 2007)