Sign of Party's accountability

Two former top officials with the Ministry of Civil Affairs have received disciplinary punishments including demotion and early retirement for failing to supervise subordinates, China's top anti-corruption body said on Wednesday.

Former minister of civil affairs Li Liguo and former vice-minister Dou Yupei were responsible for the "systematic corruption" in the ministry, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection said in a statement.

Different from other corrupt senior officials in the past, Li and Dou's wrong was not "supervising their subordinates effectively". So far, public attention has been focused on the mismanagement of welfare lotteries.

Although the results of investigations found in their management are to be disclosed, the severity of malpractices and the amount of funds involved are truely shocking.

Since the ministry under the leadership of Li and Dou had systematic corruption, the lotteries involve extensively interwoven political-commercial relations.

According to media reports, Lottery Online, a type of welfare lottery, made revenues of more than 130 billion yuan ($18.9 billion) from 2002 to 2014, and at least 2.7 billion yuan was used for the "transfer of interests".

Dou may be described as "clean and honest", given that his relatives still live an austere life in the countryside, and Dou himself was not found to be involved in the corruption, but as a top official in charge of the lotteries, he should not only remain clean by himself, but also ensure his subordinates are clean.

The case of Li and Dou also testifies that the enforcement of a strict accountability system has become the Communist Party of China's normal way of governance and that the Party has strengthened efforts to hold officials accountable since intra-Party regulations on accountability and disciplinary penalties were implemented last year.