Hu urges quake fund guarantees

Source: Xinhua  |   2008-7-1  |     NEWSPAPER EDITION

SUPERVISION should be intensified over quake relief funds and materials to guarantee they reach the people they are meant to help, President Hu Jintao said yesterday.

"We must ensure that the quake relief funds and materials will be veritably used for quake relief and the people affected by the earthquake," Hu, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, told a workshop marking the 87th anniversary of the CPC.

The meeting was attended by representatives of the Party's grassroots organizations and members who had been honored for their roles in the rescue and relief campaign after the May 12 earthquake. Top leaders Wu Bangguo, Wen Jiabao and Jia Qinglin were also present.

The death toll of the 8.0-magnitude Wenchuan earthquake reached nearly 70,000, and more than 18,000 were still counted among the missing yesterday. Government relief funds totaled 54.72 billion yuan (US$7.82 billion), while domestic and foreign donations hit 55.3 billion yuan in cash and goods.

Hu told the meeting that education and supervision of Party members and leading officials in regard to clean governance should be strengthened, punishment and prevention of corruption needed improvement, and efforts against corruption should be increased.

These measures were essential for Party members and leading officials "to maintain their original political color, and be clean in doing their jobs and behaving themselves," Hu said.

He also promised that officials who "passed tests and showed extraordinary capability in the rescue, relief and rebuilding work" should be promoted to leading positions.

Hu called on all CPC members to study and practice the great "earthquake rescue and relief spirit" displayed by local Communist heroes. "The spirit was a concentrated display and new development of the national spirit of modern China," he said.