Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao has stressed that "supervision" is one of the key missions in 2009 for government organizations to tackle corruption amid the economic crisis, according to Wen's speech script released Wednesday by the State Council.

"The impact of the global economic crisis was still amplifying. Companies' profits shrinking, financial income reducing, job situation worsening... Under such circumstances, it's of great importance for government organizations to reform and tackle any kind of corruption," Wen said.

Wen said this year supervision would be focused on whether government officials' work was quick and effective, policies and regulations practised properly, projects carried out scientifically, funds used reasonably among others.

He said any kind of fund misappropriation, unqualified buildings and other problems which closely affected people's livelihood should be strictly prevented.

Also, Wen stressed supervision in food and drug industry to avoid any safety issues involving unapproved food additives and fake and unqualified medicines.

Wen initially made those remarks at a conference on clean governance on March 24. The highlights for his speech on that day were released Wednesday by the State Council.

Wen ordered at the conference that Party and government organizations at all levels should reduce reception expenditures this year by 10 percent over 2008, cut car purchase and maintenance fees by 15 percent on the basis of the average amount in the recent three years, and reduce expenditure for business trips abroad by 20 percent based on the average amount over the past three years.

Wen said, this year efforts will be focused on investigation and handling of corruption cases involving government organs and officials, and hard strikes will be made in cases of "collusion between officials and businesses, power-for-money deals and commercial bribery cases."

He urged tougher scrutiny over funds and projects that were closely related to people's livelihoods, such as medical insurance in rural areas, pensions, payment in arrears for migrant workers, water conservation, railroads and other forms of transportation, and urban construction.

Individuals or groups should be severely punished for making defective or harmful farm products or imposing unreasonable charges on farmers, students and patients, he said.

Wen praised the anti-corruption progress made by various government officials last year, especially in supervising and managing relief funds for the May 12 earthquake and the post-quake construction.

"Only by building a clean and efficient government can we unite everyone as an entire force to cope with the crisis and get over it," he added.

Last year, China investigated 2,687 government officials for graft, malfeasance and infringement of people's rights. Those included four people at the province or ministry level, according to a report delivered by Prosecutor-General Cao Jianming in earlier March.

Also, the government investigated 10,315 cases of commercial bribery cases committed by government workers, involving a total sum of more than 2.1 billion yuan (309 million U.S. dollars).

(Xinhua News Agency April 9, 2009)