The State Administration for Industry and Commerce reports that in the first quarter of 2009 a total of 584 business bribery cases were uncovered, which was a decrease of 1.18% over the same period last year.
Of all the cases, 111 was related to retailing, accounting for 19.01%; 868 to telecom, accounting for 11.30%; 43 to project construction, accounting for 7.36%, and 35 to medical service, accounting for 6%. The top ten regions where the business briberies cases were identified are said to be Zhejiang, Guangdong, Jiangsu, Shandong, Shanaghai, Hebei, Jilin, Xinjiang, Henan, and Sichuan.
Of the 583 cases that have been accepted for investigation, 388 involved an amount of less than CNY50,000, accounting for 66.55% of the total cases, 58 involved amounts of between CNY50,000 and CNY100,000, accounting for 9.95%; 55 involved amounts between CNY100,000 and CNY300,000, accounting for 9.43%; 30 involved an amount between CNY300,000 and CNY1 million, accounting for 6.17%; and 46 involved an amount over CNY1 million, accounting for 9.89%.
In terms of the subject of the violators, the subjects of 259 cases were companies, accounting for 44.2%; 147 were self-employed businesses, accounting for 25.21%; 45 were private enterprises, accounting for 7.72%; 39 were individuals, accounting for 6.69%; 14 were state-owned enterprises, and 12 were collectively-owned enterprises.
According to a representative from SAIC, the industry and commerce departments of all levels have been focused on checking business briberies related to people's livelihood and they will extend their work to project construction, property transactions, land concessions, resource development and make efforts to build up a long term mechanism for countering business bribery.