More than 3,000 members of the Communist Party of Vietnam from 22 localities in the southern region were disciplined in the first half of this year, local newspaper Saigon Liberation reported Thursday.

They were disciplined mainly for their wrongdoings on land, investment and finance mismanagement, the paper quoted reports at a local meeting on party inspection in the south concluding on Wednesday.

Notably, 19 party members from Binh Thuan province were disciplined for slack responsibility for preventing and combating crimes. Some of them even showed signs of sheltering a notorious criminal gang in the locality. The gang's leader, Nguyen Thanh Guong, alias Hai Chi, was arrested in 2005 after committing various crimes for a long time, including murder, gambling and robbing.

The party now has 3.1 million members.

Source: Xinhua