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September 16, 2011

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Probe after poor county spends big on guest group

THE disciplinary watchdog in central China's Hubei Province has started to probe allegations that an impoverished county spent more than 800,000 yuan (US$125,213) to entertain a group of eight government officials for more than 20 days.

The Zigui County government reportedly submitted a request to the local finance bureau, asking to reimburse a total of 801,900 yuan which was used to host the group of officials from provincial authorities, People's Daily reported yesterday.

Among the expenditure, more than 110,000 yuan was spent on gifts, including luxury shirts for each person, 15 sets of sports suits and local handmade shoes.

Another 110,000 yuan was used to buy electronic equipment, such as printers, copy machines, cameras and dozens of tablet computers.

The enormous bill led to outrage as Zigui is a nation-level poverty-stricken county.

Zheng Zhiwen, director of Zigui publicity department, told the newspaper that the printers were bought for the county government, rather than for the visiting group.

Zheng also denied they bought tablet computers, claiming that they only purchased several flash drives.

Zigui government also denied the group traveled to other places at public expense, adding that the officials visited several places in the southwestern Sichuan Province for business purposes as Zigui and these areas all belong to the Three Gorges Reservoir area.

The actual expenditure will be published once the investigation is finished, an official with the disciplinary watchdog told the newspaper, adding that if tourism is organized under the guise of business trip, they will hold the organizers responsible.

 

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