World-famous anti-corruption expert Neil Stansbury expressed the "I-hope-so" attitude when explaining typical dishonesty cases in the nation's construction sector. He spoke to a group of Chinese officials involved in multi-billion-dollar Olympic Games projects on Wednesday.

"They are involved in projects with such huge sums of money at stake, and should not only keep their hands from being greased but learn how to uncover malpractice," said Stansbury, an expert from Berlin-based Transparency International who has nearly 20 years of anti-corruption experience.

The Olympic-related officials said there are internationally common problems in the construction fields such as bribing project owners through agents, committing bribery through long-term relationships and offering inflated prices in contracts.

"The examples noted by Neil (Stansbury) can broaden our horizons in preventing dirty actions in constructing Olympic gyms and stadiums," said Gu Yueren, deputy supervising director with the Organizing Committee of Beijing 2008 Olympic Games.

Gu said the committee has already come up with detailed measures to ensure not only the "best" but also the "cleanest" Games ever staged.

"Every committee official has been regularly trained and alerted to maintain integrity," said Gu.

The Beijing Municipal Planning and Reform Commission recently said construction and service projects related to the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games will provide as much as 136 billion yuan (US$16.39 billion) in business opportunities for domestic and foreign investors.

A promotion is to be held April 18 to 19 in Beijing to attract investment in 376 projects that involve infrastructure construction and renovation, Olympic gyms and stadiums, high technology industrialization, education and culture, modern manufacturing, tourism and environmental protection. Some 22 key projects involving 55 billion yuan (US$6.63 billion) have already been readied, said Ding Xiangyang, the commission's director.

The training of officials from Gu's committee was part of two-day international anti-corruption event for construction sector held at Tsinghua University.

Frank Robertson, vice-president of the US-based Chubb Group of Insurance Companies said China needs innovation in its laws to stop rampant corruption in construction.

Statistics indicate that about 70 per cent of corruption cases are related to construction projects,, which ranks China at the middle-level among the world's 180 countries, according to Transparency International.

Liao Ran, officer in charge of Asia affairs in the independent organization to promote market integrity, said the situation in China's corruption cases differs from happenings from other regions.

"Western swindlers cheat but are tricky to hide wrongdoings; Chinese criminals are prone to fraud but are not easy to discover; wrongdoers in South Asia cheat without hiding," said Liao, urging more law-making and strict enforcement to ensure market integrity and corruption cleanup.

Editor Hugh