China warns of graft hotbed in land, building
Source: Agencies/Shanghai Daily |
May 21, 2010, Friday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
CHINA'S supervision officials said yesterday that land-management and construction-approval officials were high-risk bribery candidates.
Corruption could occur in all links in the chain of construction, from land-use approval to project management, public bidding and material purchase, Hao Mingjin, vice minister of supervision, told a press conference in Beijing.
Hao cited 20 criminal cases at the conference.
A total of 3,058 officials, including several mayors, received penalties of up to life in prison for offenses related to construction projects, Hao said.
And 5,241 officials received disciplinary penalties from the Communist Party of China.
The criminal cases announced yesterday were concluded over a six-month period ending in April, according to Hao.
Behind frequently exposed construction-quality scandals in China, government officials were found taking bribes in the forms of cash, gold, houses, luxury cars, stocks and other items.
The biggest individual bribe was more than 22 million yuan (US$3.2 million).
Fu Kui, head of the ministry's enforcement department, said some land-management authorities monopolized both administrative approval and administrative law enforcement.
Supervision and management regulations were insufficient, which explained partly why some officials were vulnerable to corruption, Fu said. Plus, land was scarce but demand for it high.
Authorities at the conference said yesterday such misconduct helped to fuel a surge in housing prices, which jumped 12.8 percent in April over a year earlier.
The central government worries about a possible boom and bust in real estate prices and is trying to cool surging housing costs.
"Forcefully cracking down on corruption in real estate will play a positive role in curbing rapid housing price rises in some areas," Fu told reporters.
"We will tackle corruption with a heavy fist ... if we don't take tough measures, it will be hard to suppress this."
Fu said China would continue reforms in land management by reducing administration involvement in the industry, tightening supervision and promoting practices that are much more market-oriented.
A special regulation has been issued to prevent Party and government officials from abusing their powers to gain personal benefits from construction projects.
Among the most severe penalties announced yesterday involved an official in the southwestern city of Chengdu, Zhou Xuewen, who received a suspended death sentence in November for taking 22 million yuan to approve land sales.
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