Poverty alleviation rife with corruption

China has stepped up efforts against corruption in poverty alleviation, having prosecuted record numbers of officials in 2016.

A total of 1,799 people were prosecuted from January to November of 2016 for crimes related to their roles in poverty-alleviation projects, a steep rise of 97.7 percent from the same period of the previous year, Song Hansong, chief of the National Bureau of Corruption Prevention under the Supreme People’s Procuratorate (SPP), was quoted as saying by the Beijing News on Friday.

During the first 11 months of 2016, the bureau finished investigations of 1,388 suspects, a rise of 75.9 percent, the Beijing News reported.

It was part of a five-year cooperation starting from 2016 between the SPP and the State Council Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development targeting correction and prevention of graft during the process of implementing programs for reducing poverty.

China’s financial institutions issued 818.1 billion yuan ($118 billion) of loans to aid the antipoverty drive, and outstanding loans now total 2.49 trillion yuan.

More financial resources would be allocated in 2017 to ensure the government meets its annual target to reduce poverty by 10 million people, said Su Guoxia, spokesperson with the poverty alleviation office.

China surpassed its annual target by lifting 12.4 million people out of poverty in 2016 and there are 45 million people still living in poverty.