All department leaders below county level will be audited before they leave their posts in Guangdong Province beginning 2006, a provincial auditing meeting was told Saturday.

The province's auditing department will audit major leaders at the county level once during their tenure by the end of 2006, according to a decision on anti-graft made by the provincial committee of the CPC. Awareness, the building of a set of rules and supervision should be equally stressed while punishing and preventing corruption, the decision says.

In 2007, the auditing department will audit major Party and government leaders at various levels during their tenure. Leaders of State-owned enterprises will be audited before they leave their posts.

Audits on city-level leaders will be conducted regularly. All the auditing results will be announced in public.

Leaders of departments that see large cash flow, that distribute financial resources or leaders who are going to be promoted will be the focus of audit.

Leaders of departments that have had frequent complaints lodged against them by the public or leaders of key state-owned companies will also become auditing targets.

The audit will see whether Party leaders are following national policies in making important economic and social development decisions, whether government leaders have flaws in the management of fiscal budget and facilities construction, and whether department leaders have erred in using government funds and separating management in income and expenditure.

For leaders of state-owned enterprises, the audit will focus on whether the companies' financial reports are genuine and whether they have flaws in making operation and investment decisions.

The audit department audited 10,772 leaders during their tenure from 2000 to 2004.

A total of 35.3 billion yuan (US$4.4 billion) was found having been illegally used, 61.2 billion yuan was found having been mismanaged, and 4.7 billion yuan was found having been wasted during the audit.

Among those amounts, relevant department leaders were found to be responsible for 2.32 billion yuan illegally used, 2.09 billion yuan mismanaged and 480 million yuan that have been wasted.

A total of 231 leaders have been taken to court, and another 747 cadres have been promoted, 71 demoted, 36 dismissed, and 105 disciplined after the audit.

Seven provincial departments attended the meeting in Guangzhou on Saturday, including the disciplinary committee of the CPC, the management committee of state-owned assets and the departments of organizing, supervision, personnel, audit and fiscal.

(Shenzhen Daily October 10, 2005)