BEIJING
China’s top anti-graft watchdog has announced that 19,000 officials were sanctioned for violating frugality rules in the first half of this year, according to local media Thursday.
The Central Commission for Discipline Inspection posted a report on its website that said that among the 14,000 cases involved, two officials are from senior ministerial levels while around 17,000 are from low township levels, the state-run China Daily reported.
To date more than 120,000 people have been punished since 2012 when the Communist Party of China adopted the “eight-point rules" aimed at increasing the efficiency of members and curbing malpractice such as corruption and power abuse.
While the figures represent a drop from the same period last year, when 71,000 officials were sanctioned in more than 53,000 cases, the watchdog said Wednesday that there has been an increase in violations since March.
More than 4,300 officials were penalized in June alone.
According to the Daily, the overall drop in cases indicated that the "eight-point rules" might be yielding results.
