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Funds recovered from public tip-offs over officials involved in graft and illegal land use doubled in the past two years to more than 80 million yuan ($11.7 million) last year, figures from the Ministry of Land and Resources showed yesterday.

Whistle-blowers helped point out 5,167 cases to the ministry last year, with 196 land officials subsequently punished, about one-quarter more than the number in 2006, the authorities said.

"We made great progress last year in dealing with cases involving corruption and illegal land use," said Wang Shouxiang, head of the Discipline Inspection Commission of the ministry.

Wang said tips led to the investigation of more than 240 cases involving bribery in the real estate and mining sectors last year.

In one case, Lu Guoping, former director of the general office and spokesman for the ministry, was sacked after a tip from a whistle-blower led authorities to discover that the 44-year-old Jiangxi native was involved in criminal activity while he was head of the general office, Caijing magazine reported on Oct 30.

Zhou Jiugeng, former director of the real estate management bureau in Jiangsu province, was fired after local disciplinary authorities launched a graft investigation stemming from photographs depicting his lavish lifestyle that were found online last year.

"These officials hurt the reputation of the ministry badly. This year, we should pay great attention to the building of an incorruptible government," Wang said.

Accepting bribes in cash or other forms like securities and houses is strictly forbidden, he said, adding that strict land development approval is a long-term process.

Special campaigns to curb overseas travel through the use of public funds will be near the top of the ministry's work agenda this year, he said.

Authorities banned about 4,000 officials from going on more than 550 overseas trips through the use of public funds from June to November, the Xinhua News Agency reported last month.

Ma Wen, deputy secretary of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, said 830,000 officials went abroad in the same period, a decrease of 18.9 percent from the year before.

Du Yunshen, head of the Hubei provincial bureau of land and resources, said yesterday that nearly 400 inspectors have been employed to supervise wrongdoing in the local bureaus since last June.

"Corruption has become a terrible problem for us. It is good to see that our government has taken a series of measures, but to eliminate corruption is long and tough work," Xia Xueluan, a sociologist at Peking University, told China Daily yesterday.

Across all industries, authorities busted 6,227 business-related bribery cases involving 1.65 billion yuan last year, the State Administration for Industry and Commerce (SAIC) said yesterday.

Among the cases, 726 involved the sale of pharmaceutical products, while construction projects accounted for 216 cases.

Industry and commerce departments nationwide will focus this year on bribery cases emerging from post-quake reconstruction and government-funded projects designed for economic expansion, said Shi Jianyuan, a discipline inspection official of the Chinese Communist Party posted at the SAIC.

Regulators will also watch for bribery in fields such as land transactions and resources exploitation.

SAIC Director Zhou Bohua called for "severe punishment" of officials in the industry and commerce departments who accept bribes.

Questions:

1. How much money was recovered from graft and illegal land use?

2. What measure will be one of the top priorities to curb the misuse of public funds?

3. Which sectors will be closely watched for bribery this year?

Answers:

1. More than 80 million yuan.

2. Curbing overseas travel by officials.

3. Post-quake reconstruction and government-funded projects, land transactions and resource exploitation.

（英语点津 Helen 编辑）

About the broadcaster:

Bernice Chan is a foreign expert at China Daily Website. Originally from Vancouver, Canada, Bernice has written for newspapers and magazines in Hong Kong and most recently worked as a broadcaster for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, producing current affairs shows and documentaries.