The People's Liberation Army (PLA) has vowed to crack down on bribery, as part of the war against corruption.

"To crack down on commercial bribery will become a major task for the army's supervision work this year and next year," Party newspaper People's Daily reported yesterday.

It said the campaign will focus on bribery connected to the army's purchase of medical, transport and telecommunications equipment, as well as infrastructure construction.

The anti-bribery campaign will "ensure middle and senior-level officers in the army are strictly self-disciplined and incorruptible," it added.

The fight against bribery in the 2.3 million-strong PLA comes as corrupt civilian businesses have tried to bribe their way into the military procurement spending programme.

"In commercial transactions, the military confronts the temptations and corruption of bribery, and instances of economic laws being broken and other abuses have been on the rise," an unidentified PLA supervisor was quoted as saying.

Over the past few years, the PLA has sought to raise efficiency by opening some procurement spending to commercial tenders from civilian businesses especially in sectors such as military equipment, medical supplies, telecommunications and transport equipment.

Beijing said in March that the defence budget will rise 14.7 per cent to 283.8 billion yuan (US$35.5 billion) in 2006.

Starting from June, PLA units were ordered to inspect their own commercial transactions over the coming six months, according to the People's Daily. "By the end of the year, major military units will be required to report their inspection results to the PLA General Political Department and Discipline Commission which will then carry out spot checks," the report said.

The PLA supervisor admitted that tackling commercial bribery is "a complicated and arduous task that has been included as part of the army's system of punishing and preventing corruption."

The announcement came just weeks after PLA navy deputy commander Wang Shouye was dismissed by the Central Military Commission on charges of economic crimes.

The 62-year-old was also expelled from the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC), China's top legislature, on June 29.

According to documents submitted to the NPC, Wang "had abused his power to ask for and take bribes."

To battle army corruption, the Central Military Commission approved the establishment of the Leading Group for Auditing Economic Responsibility of PLA Officials last month.

Headed by General Liao Xilong, director of the PLA General Logistics Department, the group aims to strengthen supervision of middle and senior-level PLA officers.

It plans to audit about 1,000 top military officers this year, according to earlier reports.

(China Daily August 3, 2006)