The newly established National Bureau of Corruption Prevention (NBCP) aims to address the lack of preventive policies against corruption in private companies and non-governmental agencies, the NBCP head said on Tuesday.

"Corruption not only occurs in government departments but also in companies and non-governmental organizations. No specific department was responsible for drawing up preventive policies for them and monitoring their implementation until the NBCP was set up," said Ma Wen, the NBCP head and also Minister of Supervision, in an interview with Xinhua on Tuesday.

According to the Ministry of Supervision, the authority had investigated 24,879 cases of commercial bribery, involving 6.16 billion yuan (US$819.15 million), by June this year.

Local media reported earlier that French Supermarket chain Carrefour and Germany-based Siemens both had Chinese employees involved in commercial bribery.

One of the NBCP's major tasks is to expand the preventive network to every corner of Chinese society, Ma said.

The NBCP will work out guidelines on corruption prevention for companies and public undertakings, help trade organizations develop a self-discipline system, put forward policies guarding against commercial bribery and initiate publicity campaigns on corruption prevention.

"Corruption prevention is a cause that every citizen in the society should be engaged in," Ma said.

She listed several problems in the country's corruption prevention work. Besides a lack of preventive policies for the non-government sector, the country also needed a coordinator among relevant departments and professional think tank to collect information, analyze policy risks and work out targeted preventive measures, she said.

"The establishment of the NBCP has undergone careful research and discussion for four years since China signed the United Nations Convention Against Corruption," she said.

The UN convention, adopted at the 58th session of the UN General Assembly in 2003, included an item that all parties should set up a corruption prevention body.

(Xinhua News Agency September 19, 2007)