36K officials punished under China austerity drive in 2015

Nearly 5,000 officials have been reprimanded in China for violating austerity rules in October, taking the total number of those punished this year to 36,600, the ruling Communist Party's top anti-graft body today said.
The Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) said the officials, including two provincial and ministerial level officials, were implicated in over 3,800 cases, about a fourth of which involved unapproved use of public vehicles.
Unauthorised allowances and subsidies, lavish weddings and funerals as well as illicit gifts were included in violations.
The CCDI said in a routine report on its website that more than 4,900 officials were reprimanded in October.

The latest addition to the list of officials punished this year under the austerity and anti-corruption campaign launched by President Xi Jinping brings the total number to 36,600.
The CCDI has established a monthly reporting system since August, 2013 to monitor the implementation of "eight-point rules" nationwide, which was introduced in December 2012 by the CPC to reduce bureaucracy, extravagance, and undesirable work habits.
According to CCDI, more than 71,000 officials were subject to disciplinary action for breaking austerity rules in 2014.
By the end of October, some 27,000 cases involving four provincial and ministerial level officials have been dealt with in the country's frugality campaign in 2015, it said.