National prosecutors will target those who offer bribes as they seek to stem corruption among officials, the Supreme People's Procuratorate has announced.

Many of the senior officials who are under investigation are alleged to have accepted large bribes, Song Hansong, director of the procuratorate's Department of Duty-related Crime Prevention, said on Wednesday.

"Those who give bribes often approach government officials, who abuse their power to obtain major benefits for enterprises in exchange for huge payments," he said.

"We will strengthen our investigations and attack the bribe-givers to curb the problem at its root."

Song said bribery tends to occur in capital-intensive industries such as construction, finance, education, health and medicine, as well as in the bidding process for government contracts.

He added that the introduction of a national system to keep track of convictions for offering bribes has helped to uncover and prevent further cases.

Gao Yuntao, the department's deputy director, said more than 4.3 million inquiries have been made since the national database was set up in 2012. As a result, 2,090 organizations and 2,426 individuals with criminal records for offering bribes have been detected.

The number of inquiries to the database stood at 1.96 million in the first 11 months of this year, a year-on-year increase of 46.3 percent.

The inquiries mainly involve requests for information related to bidding, government procurement, loan applications and personnel management.

"The system allows organizations and individuals to submit an inquiry about an individual or a company, and a record of any involvement in bribery is supplied," said Gao.

"Companies with records of bribery may face restrictions on their activities, such as bidding for projects or applying for bank loans, or their businesses may be terminated."

The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China requires individuals and organizations to show they have a clean record before they are allowed to participate in bidding and procurement, or apply for jobs or seek loans.

The top procuratorate has pledged to further improve the inquiry system, giving the public more information about it and explaining how to access the records.

The department said it will step up its efforts to investigate repeat offenders and cases involving the offering of large bribes. Members of the public who report cases or provide evidence will receive rewards.

Li Wei of the Beijing Lawyer Association said targeting those who offer bribes is an essential part of the campaign against corruption.

"By conducting thorough investigations, the prosecutors will dig out the corrupt officials who use their positions to obtain money from criminals," she added.

Contact the writer at zhangyan1@chinadaily.com.cn and zhang_yi@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 12/25/2014 page4)