Prosecution work needs broad social conscience
- Source: Global Times
- [21:59 January 20 2010]
- Comments
Chen Xu
Editor's Note:
Shanghai has seen prominent cases of wrongdoing over the past few years, including police entrapment in 2009 and the collapse of a major building mid-construction. With the World Expo 2010 upcoming, how is Shanghai working to curb corruption? People's Daily Online (PO) talked to Chen Xu (Chen), procurator-general of Shanghai People's Procuratorate, on the procuratorate's efforts to deal with these problems.
PO: How does judicial work in Shanghai affect the city's overall development? What unique conditions in the city affect your work?
Chen: When we enforce the law, we should not only follow the letter of the law, but also pay attention to the problems that ordinary people are concerned about.
In the financial and economic crisis in 2008, we applied the law to fight against serious crimes which disrupted the economic and financial order, including tax collection crimes, Internet fraud and financial fraud.
Despite increased punishments, criminal cases related to finance still rose by an average of 40 to 50 percent. We should pay strong attention to this.
For instance, a lot of problems should be appropriately dealt with when we investigate enterprises.
To simply close down factories or freeze assets can only make the situation even worse.
Measures should be taken to investigate crimes and also create a relatively good environment for business development.
By doing this we not only fulfill the duties of prosecutors, but also sustain a good financial environment.
I have always stressed the "half and half" theory to all colleagues who are engaged in law enforcement and prosecuting work.
The theory means after finishing one case, we have done half the work.
Another half is to find out the problems reflected in the case, and forward our proposals for solutions to businesses, Party committees and government agencies, and even to the police and courts, so that we can amplify the effect of our work.
Therefore, we could handle cases, maintain the overall situation and help protect people's livelihood.
PO: The World Expo 2010 will take place in Shanghai this year. What measures are being taken to prevent corruption? How can we guarantee integrity during the construc-tion process?
Chen: We started to prepare for this from the very beginning.
Five prosecuting officials have been sent to the Expo area to participate in the work of the commission for disciplinary inspections, especially over the legal affairs of major construction projects.
They concentrated on how to prevent crimes and malpractice in those projects.
At the same time, we have done a lot of legal publicity work among construction units to ensure the quality of the projects and the quality of the people involved.
We also paid close attention to malpractices during the construction of Expo sites.
Three cases of bribery were discovered and investigated, although they were not very serious, through first investigation and later education, we were able to have a positive influence on future construction work.
We are also preparing to set up special prosecution offices during the Expo. Related cases will be forwarded to prosecuting offices in Pudong district.
Recently, we signed a security cooperation contract with the prosecution authorities in Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces.
In general, we are not only guaranteeing the quality of construction, avoid crimes and malpractice, but also working together with the legal system, police and authorities in Jiangsu and Zhejiang to effectively deal with Expo-related cases. These measures will ensure a smooth Expo.
