Beijing, April 30 (IANS) A total of 10,535 government employees or former officials were being investigated on suspicion of having abused their power in the first three months of this year, authorities said.

The former officials or government employees were involved in 7,910 cases concerning work-related crimes, said the Supreme People’s Procuratorate (SPP) Friday.

Xinhua quoted SPP spokesperson Bai Quanmin as saying that as part of China’s anti-graft efforts, they have given top priority to investigating and preventing duty-related crimes since the start of the year.

Bai said that from January to March, the SPP placed under investigation 632 former officials or government employees who were suspected of being implicated in 5,567 cases which concerned abuse of power and caused strong public resentment.

Authorities also tightened their crackdown again corruption. Under the campaign, 923 officials or government employees were placed under investigation on charges of giving bribes in the past three months.