The head of China's electricity watchdog has hit out at "local protectionism" encountered by inspectors during an 18-month investigation into commercial corruption in the state power sector.

State Electricity Regulatory Commission (SERC) chairman You Quan said the campaign had been a "substantial initial achievement," with investigators dealing with 121 commercial corruption cases involving 178 people and a total 44.07 million yuan from August 2005 to March 2007.

However, he told a meeting of the commercial corruption control group, "The mind-set of local protectionism and protecting departmental interests must be corrected."

A nationwide self-regulation campaign in 5,846 electricity enterprises recovered 17.14 million yuan in cash gifts or negotiable securities from both firms and individuals over the same period.

You said a long-term mechanism must be established soon to prevent and deal with corruption.

He said future scrutiny would target electricity engineering, equipment and materials procurement, property rights transactions, power supply services and electricity bill payments.

He urged inspectors to draw up a blacklist of those involved in corrupt practices.

Inspectors must cooperate with the public by protecting and rewarding those pass on information leading to the exposure of malpractice, he said.

The Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the central government launched a nationwide drive to stop commercial corruption in governmental departments in 2005.

The State Administration for Industry and Commerce preceded the SERC with a report in April, detailing investigations into 9,086 commercial corruption cases in 2006, involving a total 1.93 billion yuan, up 111 percent from the previous year.

From August 2005 to the end of 2006, the government dealt with 17,084 commercial corruption cases involving more than 4.5 billion yuan (US$577 million). More than 2.6 million enterprises and government departments have conducted self-regulation drives, recovering 417 million yuan (US$53.46 million) in illegal earnings by 2006, but it is unclear which sectors were the worst affected.

The drive is headed by a leading group directly under the CPC Central Committee.

Commercial corruption in China often involves firms paying money to government officials for special favors.

(Xinhua News Agency June 7, 2007)