China's top anti-graft authorities have urged discipline inspection and supervision agencies nationwide to strengthen oversight ahead of the five-day May Day holiday starting Friday and crack down on misconduct during the period.

The Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the Communist Party of China and the National Commission of Supervision called on Monday for close attention to misconduct that tends to occur during holidays, including the illegal giving or receiving of gifts through courier services, banquets funded by public money, meals paid for by subordinates or business owners, and the use of weddings, funerals or other events to collect money.

They said authorities at all levels should step up pre-holiday education and reminders, broaden channels for discovering clues, and intensify inspections targeting violations of the central Party leadership's eight-point decision on improving Party and government conduct.

Such hidden and mutated forms of undesirable conduct must be accurately identified and dealt with seriously in accordance with Party discipline and laws, they said.

According to the CCDI and NCS, a total of 21,274 cases related to the violations of the eight-point decision were investigated nationwide in March, with 26,614 people criticized, educated or punished.

Among the cases, 9,128 involved officials failing to perform duties properly, seriously affecting high-quality development. Such cases accounted for 84.3 percent of all formalism and bureaucratism cases handled that month.

For cases involving hedonism and extravagance, the illegal giving or receiving of valuable local specialties, gifts and money accounted for 59.3 percent. Illegal banquets accounted for 20.6 percent, while the improper distribution of allowances, subsidies or benefits made up 10.2 percent.

In terms of official rank, one case involved a provincial or ministerial level official, 95 involved department- or bureau-level officials. Cases involving township-level and lower-ranking officials accounted for 93.8 percent of the total, according to the authorities.