Officials' overseas trips to face tighter scrutiny

The National Bureau of Corruption Prevention said Thursday that officials' applications to make overseas trips will be subjected to tighter scrutiny to avoid the abuse of public funds.

Expenses for business trips will be restricted and pre-auditing will be carried out, according to the bureau.

Officials must take responsibility if their trips violate disciplinary codes or laws, the bureau's notice stated.

With the country widening international exchanges in recent years, some officials have taken advantage of overseas trips in order to pocket public funds.

Last August, Xu Wen'ai, vice-procurator-general of Anhui province, was removed from his post for wasting public funds on a trip to Finland.

A delegation of 10 people from the procuratorate headed by Xu was found to have fabricated an invitation from the Finnish government.