BEIJING - Chinese prosecutors investigated 3,214 officials at county-level or above for dereliction of duty from January to August of 2015, the Supreme People's Procuratorate (SPP) has said.

The number of the probed officials saw an increase of 17.9 percent year on year, said Chen Lianfu with the SPP Friday.

The SPP has ordered prosecutors nationwide to rectify 148 cases that were improperly handled in a one-year campaign launched in December 2014, said Chen, adding 107 cases have been closed.

Chen attributed such malpractice to some prosecutors' reckless pursuit of quantity of cases, rather than quality.