The Chinese capital promised to host a "clean" Olympics Wednesday as its top official vowed to double anti-corruption efforts on the preparations for the 2008 event.

 

"We must tighten auditing and monitoring efforts on the preparatory work of the Olympics to prevent all potential (corruption) problems," said Liu Qi, secretary of the Beijing Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC).

 

Efforts must be made to ensure that staff members involved in the Olympic preparations and venue construction projects remain on track, Liu was quoted as saying by Wednesday's Beijing Daily.

 

Liu, who is also chairman of the organizing committee of the 2008 Olympics, was speaking following an announcement by the CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspections of the expulsion of former Beijing Vice Mayor Liu Zhihua from the Party.

 

Liu Zhihua, who had also been dismissed from all administrative posts, was found to have taken millions of yuan in bribes by taking advantage of his official position.

 

Liu Zhihua was elected vice mayor in 1999 in charge of overseeing construction, real estate, sports and traffic projects in the capital.

 

Liu Qi asked Beijing officials to draw lessons from Liu Zhihua's case and remain sober-minded. He said the city will enhance supervision of its officials in a bid to prevent power abuse and unwise policy-making.

 

Supervision must be particularly strengthened for areas frequently hit by corruption, such as promotion of officials, allocation of fiscal funds, management of state assets, selling of land use rights and licensing, Liu was quoted as saying.

 

He also required officials to stand firmly against corruption and constantly combat corruption to ensure the city's economic, political, cultural and social development and to realize the target of a "clean" Olympics.

 

China has launched a huge corruption drive over the last few years.

 

The sacking of Shanghai party chief Chen Liangyu last September for alleged involvement in a social security fund scandal, has become the country's highest-ranking official to fall in the latest anti-corruption campaign.

 

Later, Qiu Xiaohua, head of the National Bureau of Statistics was sacked for his suspected involvement in the 10 billion-yuan (US$1.25 billion) Shanghai social security fund fraud.

 

The CPC announced earlier that 115,000 CPC members were disciplined last year for various faults, accounting for 0.16 percent of the Party's total membership.

 

Among them, 11,071 members were expelled from the party, and 7,279 were transferred to judicial authorities for criminal investigations.

 

(Xinhua News Agency December 14, 2006)