PUBLIC prosecutors throughout the country detained 555 officials suspected of bribery, corruption and nonfeasance between January and June.Details were released by sources with the General Bureau Against Corruption and Bribery under the Supreme People’s Procuratorate and quoted in Sunday’s edition of the Beijing-based Legal Daily.

　While other crimes are investigated by public security departments, cases of bribery, corruption and nonfeasance should be investigated by public prosecutors, according to China’s Code of Criminal Procedure.

　The Daily noted that a significant problem was that many corrupt officials transfered embezzled money to places other than where they lived or worked. The Supreme People’s Procuratorate has told public prosecutors’ offices at all levels to establish investigation centres.

　The aim is to set up a national investigative network for better co-operation between different provinces. Guan Youren, former head of the Shaoguan branch of the Guangdong Development Bank, is suspected of having embezzled more than 24 million yuan (US$2.9 million) in public funds.

　Guan allegedly absconded with the embezzled funds in November last year. Acting on a request from their colleagues in South China’s Guangdong Province, public prosecutors in East China’s Zhejiang Province worked together with local police officers to track down and arrest Guan.

　In Southwest China’s Sichuan Province, public prosecutors have arrested 57 suspects and confiscated embezzled funds worth nearly 34 million yuan (US$4.1 million) in the first half of the year. Among the 57 suspects, 10 allegedly absconded with embezzled funds.

　While public prosecutors are not strong enough on their own, an effective way of catching suspects has been co-operation with departments of public security, national security, postal services, telecommunications and frontier defence. (SD-Agencies)