Anti-corruption bureau

Sichuan has become the fifth province to open a bureau of corruption prevention. The bureau is in addition to the branch of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and government departments assigned to deal with corruption.

The National Bureau of Corruption Prevention (NBCP) was established only in September 2007. Before that corruption cases at the national level were dealt with by the Ministry of Supervision, the General Administration for Combating Embezzlement and Bribery and the Department for the Prevention of Crimes by State Functionaries under the Supreme People's Procuratorate, and the almighty CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection. All of them have local-level offices.

Like the two anti-corruption agencies under the procuratorate, the bureaus of prevention corruption do not exist independently. Yet, unlike the two that are subordinate offices under the provincial procuratorates, the heads of the bureaus of corruption prevention are also the heads of same-level supervision authorities - the minister of supervision, for instance, heads the NBCP, too.