A total 705 Chinese officials have been punished for irregular hiring practices by the mid of November following public reports made via a nationwide reporting hotline, sources with the Organization Department of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee said Wednesday.

More than 460 offices have been set up by the CPC organizational departments above the city level throughout the country to deal with the public reports via the hotline, "12380".

Those 705 punished officials involved in 469 cases discovered by the reporting calls, according to the CPC Central Committee Organization Department.

Since 1998 the department has set up a reporting center for supervision over the party official selection through phone calls, and later local CPC committees have also established their own hotlines.

The nationwide use of the unified hotline began in March this year.

(Xinhua News Agency December 23, 2004)