Officials punished for drinking while attending training

Eleven officials in the Xiangxi Tujia and Miao autonomous prefecture in central China's Hunan province were recently given disciplinary and administrative punishment due to dining together and drinking alcohol while attending training at the prefecture's Party school in May.

As leading cadres, the trainees disregarded the discipline requirements of cadre education and training, and violated the eight-point decision on improving Party and government conduct proposed by the CPC Central Committee while attending training, and should be severely punished, said the Hunan provincial discipline inspection commission and provincial supervisory commission.

The Xiangxi Prefecture Party Committee held a seminar in the Party school from May 14 to 19.

At dusk on May 18, two groups of seminar attendees violated the regulations and went out for dinner and drinks.

In one case, five attendees invited three other people who didn't attend the seminar — Yang Yongfang, deputy director of the Standing Committee of the prefecture People's Congress, Liang Yuanping, deputy secretary general of the prefecture government, and Liang's wife — to join the dinner.

The eight people gathered for more than two hours, and the 1,900 yuan ($260) cost of the gathering was paid for by a private business operator. After the dinner, one of the officials even went out to eat and drink again that night.

At another gathering, three seminar attendees were invited by Li Xiangji, former deputy director of the prefecture's Bureau of Statistics, to have dinner and drink alcohol. The costs were covered by Li.

Unfortunately, at 10 pm on May 18, an inspection team sent by the Hunan Provincial Party Committee carried out a check at the Party school. The inspectors found that three seminar attendees drank alcohol, and one official even lied to stay at home during the seminar to avoid the inspection.

The four also failed to truthfully explain their irregularities during the verification.

In August, the Xiangxi Prefecture Party Committee issued the punishment for the 11 offenders.

This is not the first case of illegal eating and drinking issued by discipline inspection and supervisory departments. The CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and the National Supervisory Commission, China's top anti-graft bodies, said that in Qinghai province in December six department-level officials drank alcohol while attending training at the provincial Party school, resulting in the death of one official.

The CCDI and NSC warned in an article in February that the problem of eating and drinking is not a trivial matter, and is related to the image of the Party in the minds of the people.

Discipline inspection and supervision organs at all levels should strictly investigate the problem of eating and drinking that violates regulations and impose harsh punishment on violators, said the article.