China's Supreme People's Procuratorate (SPP) has blamed
negligent officials for a series of coal mine blasts that caused
huge casualties, but noted that most officials were let off
lightly.
After investigations into nine major blasts in 2005, each with a
death toll exceeding 30, the SPP found six involved official
malfeasance and held 46 government officials responsible, according
an SPP report released on Tuesday.
It attributed the main cause of the accidents to violations of
safety rules in which mine owners ordered operations to exceed
production limits.
"Such illegal operations are closely linked to criminal
negligence of government officials in carrying out supervision
duties," said a spokesman with the SPP's anti-malfeasance
bureau.
But after analysing court rulings of suspects charged with
neglect of duty in serious security accidents in 2006, the SPP
found 95.6 percent of them received no serious punishment.
Of the 249 officials tried, two had charges against them
dropped; 131, or 52.6 percent, escaped criminal punishment; and
107, or 43 percent, were treated with probation.
"The general public, especially civil servants and officials,
underestimate the harm of malfeasance and the importance and need
to penalize such acts," the SPP spokesman said.
"Quite a lot of cases have been ignored or tolerated and
officials involved are 'forgiven'."
He accused some high officials of being "not understanding and
not cooperating with, and not being supportive of" punishing
negligence of duty or even protecting suspects in their
interests.
"In many cases, malfeasance is the result of corruption, which
in turn, aids and abets such official negligence," the official
said.
The report also detailed specific cases. Hu Jianchang, former
deputy director of the Guangdong Provincial Administration for Work
Safety, was charged in June 2006 with neglect of duty and accepting
the equivalent of more than 530,000 yuan (US$70,000) in bribes from
coal mine owners following a mine flooding that left 121 people
dead.
In another case at the Jiajiabao Coal Mine, in Ningwu county, Shanxi Province, in July 2005, two senior
county Party officials collaborated with mine owners to hide the
bodies of 17 dead miners after a gas explosion in order to escape
punishment.
The report also found some officials had invested in coal mines
they supervised or ensured certain mines were operated by relatives
or friends.
Figures from the State Administration of Work Safety, China's
safety watchdog, show coal mine accidents killed 4,746 people in
2006.
In early May, the SPP announced the launch of a month-long
campaign to publicly shame officials for dereliction of duty and
abuse of power.
Over the course of the month, prosecuting organs would publish
the findings of the investigations and ways in which the public can
report official corruption, said Tong Jianming, SPP spokesman.
From January 2003 to March 2007, China's procuratorates
prosecuted 18,200 officials for dereliction of duty or abusing
their positions. Of these, 12,392 were convicted.
Dereliction by officials had resulted in 35.73 billion yuan in
direct economic losses since 2003.
(Xinhua News Agency May 23, 2007)