In another bid to root out deeply ingrained corruption in the People's Liberation Army (PLA), the Communist Party of China (CPC) has issued a tougher regulation streamlining auditing practices in the PLA and tightening disciplinary supervision.

The regulation was signed by Chinese President Xi Jinping, who is also chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC) that oversees the PLA.

Like Us on Facebook

The new regulation has 11 chapters and 77 articles, covering the audit system, audit authorization and audit process. It requires the CMC Auditing Office report to the CMC.

According to the new regulations, auditing agencies within the People's Armed Police will be canceled and PLA auditing agencies will be responsible for the auditing and supervision of the PAP, with the same standards.         

CPC said all economic activity of the PLA, which owes its first loyalty to the CPC and not the Chinese state, and the armed police is subject to auditing. It said officials with economic duties must be placed under scrutiny.

The new rules mean PLA officers with a lot of financial and logistics responsibilities; those considered for promotion and those who are leaving their posts will be placed under very close watch.

Military auditing agencies with powers to investigate and penalize must hand over disciplinary and legal violation cases in the financial sector to anti-graft and prosecution authorities for further investigation.

Implementing the new regulation will be crucial in building a modern military audit and surveillance system, said the PLA. The regulations will improve CPC construction and enhance the anti-corruption campaign within the PLA through a strict and effective surveillance network system.

Guo Chunfu, the Auditor General of the Audit Office of the CMC, said that "since 1934, we have issued five versions of auditing regulations, the last in 2007, and because of the fast development and change of our military forces in past 10 years, we need a new auditing regulation."

"In the past few years, during the military reform launched by Xi, we found there are many problems of corruption and many senior military officers were arrested," said Xu Guangyu, a retired PLA major general and a senior advisor of the China Arms Control and Disarmament Association.

"These facts tell us that we have to improve the auditing and supervision system within the military to fix the problems."

TagsCorruption, People's Liberation Army, People's Liberation Army, President Xi Jinping, Central Military Commission