Law &
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Graft watchdog steps up SOE investigations
By
ZHANG YAN (China Daily)Updated: 2014-12-17 07:27
74
senior directors have been probed in corruption cases so far this year
The
top anti-graft watchdog is to intensify its efforts to uncover corruption in
State-owned enterprises.
More
than 70 senior directors from such companies have been investigated for
suspected graft since January, said a senior official from the Party's Central
Commission of Discipline Inspection.
SOEs'
operations are closely linked to national economic security, and corruption
causes huge losses and seriously threatens the rule of the Party, Hao Mingjin,
vice-minister of supervision under the CCDI, said in an interview on the
commission's website.
"Some
SOE directors have colluded with foreign forces to trade national assets in
return for huge bribes, and we will fight such cases resolutely," he
added.
He
said that since January, the CCDI has been collecting and classifying
information provided by the public while carrying out inspections of SOEs to
gather further tipoffs.
According
to the commission, 74 senior directors of SOEs were placed under investigation
for alleged corruption between January and November, 59 percent more during
that period in 2013.
Those
being probed include Jiang Jiemin, former chairman of the China National
Petroleum Corp; Song Lin, former chairman of the China Resources Group; and
Wang Shuaiting, former vice-chairman of China Travel Services Hong Kong.
Since
November 2012, when the new leadership took office, President Xi Jinping has
conducted a sweeping campaign against corruption. The CCDI has sent inspectors
on six rounds of inspections in key provinces and regions, educational
institutes and central authorities and administrations, including SOEs, to
gather information about corrupt officials.
In
early December, the investigators visited eight SOEs, including Sinopec and
China Unicom, and five other central administrations.
During
the inspections, Xue Wandong, former manager of a petroleum engineering
technology subsidiary of Sinopec, and Zhang Zhijiang, former deputy director of
China Unicom's network unit, were taken for questioning about alleged in
corruption.
Sinopec
said on Tuesday that it will investigate the conduct of some managers and
reshuffle a number of senior posts.
"Once
we suspect someone is guilty of malpractice, regardless of who it is, we will
undertake a thorough investigation without any leniency," Sinopec said in
a statement.
Hao
said most of the suspects in SOEs were in charge of valuable resources,
including petroleum, gas, coal, and electricity. They were very powerful and
operated without proper supervision, and this created opportunities for
misconduct.
Others
abused their positions by arranging for their spouses and children to operate
businesses, gain benefits for other companies and accept huge bribes, he said.
"Although
some progress have been made in combating corruption in SOEs, we still face a
difficult task to uncover more cases," he said.
Cheng
Lei, a law professor at Renmin University of China, said the priority is to
strengthen inspections of SOEs and employ more professional personnel to gather
information.
In
addition, he said, managers in SOEs who are found to have behaved in a corrupt
way should be transferred to the judicial system to face trial immediately
after the discipline inspection departments complete their investigations.
Du
Juan contributed to this story.
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