BEIJING -- China has installed a new supervisor for construction projects for the 2008 Beijing Olympics as part of efforts to prevent corruption, following the dismissal of a vice mayor in charge of Games construction, an official said Thursday.
Xu Bo, an engineer in the Ministry of Construction, was transferred to Beijing's 2008 Projects and Construction Headquarters Office to ensure the quality of Olympics construction, the office's spokesman, Wu Jingjun, said at a news conference.
The office, Wu said, has also stepped up its auditing of projects to make sure Olympics funds are not misused.
Xu's transfer is one of the most visible signs that the sudden sacking in June of Vice Mayor Liu Zhihua for as yet unspecified corrupt acts is still reverberating through the communist government.
Liu had run the 2008 office, which oversees Olympics and related construction. His dismissal marred Beijing's generally seamless preparations for the Games.
In a routine quarterly update, Wu and another official with the 2008 office told reporters that construction on all venues was on track and that, in the wake of Liu's case, project finances were under control.
"With strengthened auditing and supervisory methods, we are pretty confident that we're going to prevent any corruption in 2008 construction," Wu said.
The promotion of Xu comes amid a general anti-corruption drive in Beijing and other major Chinese cities. State media announced Wednesday that new Communist Party corruption watchdogs were appointed in Beijing, Shanghai and Tianjin.
The personnel shifts have in part been seen as efforts by President Hu Jintao to weed out rivals and shore up support within the party before a major congress to ratify appointments and policies late next year.
The party hierarchies of Beijing and Shanghai have been dominated by supporters of Hu's predecessor, President Jiang Zemin.
Xu, a 41-year-old engineer, has been in charge of building quality and safety at the Construction Ministry.
