Nearly 30 government employees in south China's Guangdong Province, including 21 officials are being investigated for taking up to 6.861 million yuan (US$828,000) and 1.12 million Hong Kong dollars (US$144,800) in bribes in an expressway construction project, it was announced Monday.
Among the suspects are Wen Faming, chief engineer of the Department of Communications of the provincial government; Zhang Sanjie, former deputy head of the provincial authority for construction, and Lin Xingwang, chairman of the Guangdong Provincial Expressway Corporation.
Four of the suspects have been transferred to the procurators, said Jiang Qinglin, head of the Department of Supervision of the provincial government at a press conference.
The officials are accused of taking huge bribes from contractors during the construction of the Shenzhen-Shantou and the Beijing-Zhuhai expressways.
Wen Faming is accused of taking 660,000 yuan (US$79,712) and 270,000 Hong Kong dollars (US$34,830) in bribes from a contractor identified as Zheng. In return, Zheng, who did not hold the necessary license, was given contracts with Wen's help.
Zhang Sanjie is suspected of helping three contractors pass qualification upgrading and annual inspections, and unfairly listing a school building into a provincial model project, for which he was paid 146,000 yuan (US$17,633).
Lin Xingwang is accused of approving the payment of millions of yuan in extra-budgetary money to several contractors during the construction of the Shenzhen-Shantou expressway without going through the necessary auditing procedures.
The official pledged that all the corrupt officials will be dealt with in accordance with the law
(People's Daily 06/26/2001)
