Tobacco chief hits back at accusers
By Wang Qingchu |
January 8, 2011, Saturday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
THE chief of the Tobacco Monopoly Bureau in a south China city has hit out at growing accusations that he has been profiting from trafficking cigarettes, giving relatives and friends jobs at the bureau, holding double identities and splashing out on dinners at public expense.
Online posts claim Chen Wenzhu, director of the Tobacco Monopoly Bureau in Shanwei City in Guangdong Province, was buying rare and expensive cigarettes back from retailers and reselling them at a profit after he had monopolized the market, Xinhua news agency reported yesterday.
With the accusations spreading across the Internet, Chen has protested his innocence and asked Shanwei police to investigate.
One cigarette retailer in Shanwei told Xinhua said they used to get monthly quotas of expensive cigarettes such as Yellow Crane Tower 1916, but there was no supply of these in the past three years.
In China, the Tobacco Monopoly Bureau allocates the quota of these cigarettes, which have limited production and high profit margins, to retailers. Retailers can only purchase cigarettes from the bureau.
Online posts also claimed that Chen had two passports with different identities and had traveled to Hong Kong and Macau 65 times in the past three years, a violation of a local policy that limits government officials' personal overseas visits to two a year, Xinhua reported.
Chen is also said to have held two identity cards, one under his real name and the other under Chen Tao.
Claims of an extravagant lifestyle were posted on national forum Mop.com in December. The bureau's monthly expense list showed entertainment expenses topped 2.06 million yuan (US$310,000) in March last year. Chen, however, defended the figure, calling it normal as it was after the Spring Festival, a peak season for business entertainment.
Also published online was a list of more than 30 relatives and friends Chen is said to have promoted or appointed.
He admitted that five people on the list were his relatives, but said they were all working at the bureau before he was transferred to Shanwei.
An official with the Guangdong Province Tobacco Monopoly Bureau declined a request for an interview by Xinhua, saying that an investigation was under way.
Online posts claim Chen Wenzhu, director of the Tobacco Monopoly Bureau in Shanwei City in Guangdong Province, was buying rare and expensive cigarettes back from retailers and reselling them at a profit after he had monopolized the market, Xinhua news agency reported yesterday.
With the accusations spreading across the Internet, Chen has protested his innocence and asked Shanwei police to investigate.
One cigarette retailer in Shanwei told Xinhua said they used to get monthly quotas of expensive cigarettes such as Yellow Crane Tower 1916, but there was no supply of these in the past three years.
In China, the Tobacco Monopoly Bureau allocates the quota of these cigarettes, which have limited production and high profit margins, to retailers. Retailers can only purchase cigarettes from the bureau.
Online posts also claimed that Chen had two passports with different identities and had traveled to Hong Kong and Macau 65 times in the past three years, a violation of a local policy that limits government officials' personal overseas visits to two a year, Xinhua reported.
Chen is also said to have held two identity cards, one under his real name and the other under Chen Tao.
Claims of an extravagant lifestyle were posted on national forum Mop.com in December. The bureau's monthly expense list showed entertainment expenses topped 2.06 million yuan (US$310,000) in March last year. Chen, however, defended the figure, calling it normal as it was after the Spring Festival, a peak season for business entertainment.
Also published online was a list of more than 30 relatives and friends Chen is said to have promoted or appointed.
He admitted that five people on the list were his relatives, but said they were all working at the bureau before he was transferred to Shanwei.
An official with the Guangdong Province Tobacco Monopoly Bureau declined a request for an interview by Xinhua, saying that an investigation was under way.
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