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China Exclusive: 473 Mln Yuan of Official's Investment in Coal Mines Withdrawn

Posted on: Wednesday, 2 November 2005, 09:00 CST

China exclusive: 473 mln yuan of official's investment in coal mines withdrawn

BEIJING, Nov. 1 (Xinhua) -- A total of 4,578 officials nationwide have admitted they have stakes in coal mines, with total capital of 653 million yuan. Some 473 million yuan have been withdrawn by Oct. 20.

It was announced by Chen Changzhi, vice Minister of Supervision, on Tuesday at a press conference jointly organized by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the Communist Party of China (CPC), Ministry of Supervision, the Commission for Supervision and Management of State-owned Properties and the National Bureau of Production Safety Supervision and Administration.

Forcing officials to withdraw investment in coal mines is widely regarded as an important step to curb frequent coal mine accidents. Investigation showed that a large number of coal mine accidents occurred because unlawful and unsafe coal mines were given a green light to operate by local governments after officials obtained stakes in the coal mines.

In the first eight months, the death toll of coal mine accidents across China rose 8.5 percent from the same period last year. In particular, the death toll of major coal mine accidents, defined as having cost at least 10 deaths, went up 168.2 percent compared with the same period last year.

On March 14, 18 miners died in a coal mine explosion in Qitaihe County of northeast China's Heilongjiang Province. Police found that the coal mine owner was actually a deputy director of the local work safety watchdog.

In August, China issued a circular requiring all officials who had invested in coal mines to retract stakes. Five inspection groups, dispatched by the central government, went to 10 provinces to oversee officials to retract their stakes in coal mines.

Special leading groups were set up in every province, responsible for handling registration of officials' stakes in coal mines.

Li Yizhong, director of the National Bureau of Production Safety Supervision and Administration, said "The deals between power and money, conducted by coal mine owners in collusion with local officials, were unbearably rampant."

Some officials bought coal mine stakes to obtain bonuses, some acted as coal mine owners themselves, some accepted bribes from coal mine owners when issuing coal mine operation permits, some acted as protective shields for coal mine owners after accepting bribes and some helped coal mine owners hide death tolls when accidents occurred, Li said.

Chen said officials who refused to register their stakes in coal mines within the required time limit or pretended to withdraw stakes but actually still held the stakes, would be removed from their posts.

Li disclosed that citizens who offer important clues on illegal investment by officials in coal mines will be awarded, in order to stimulate citizens to play a bigger role in combating government corruption.

Source: Xinhua News Agency - CEIS

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