The Shanghai Commission for Discipline Inspection of the
Communist Party of China (CPC) and the Shanghai Commission of
Supervision announced Friday nine officials involved in the
Shanghai pension fund graft probe have been expelled from their
posts and the CPC.
The expelled officials include Zhu Junyi, former director of the
Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Labor and Social Security, Qin Yu,
former deputy secretary of the Shanghai's Baoshan District CPC
Committee, and Sun Luyi, former deputy secretary-general of the CPC
Shanghai Municipal Committee.
The three officials were accused of immoral behavior, taking
bribes, and leading decadent lifestyles, according to the
decision.
Others dismissed include Wang Chengming and Han Guozhang, two
officials of the Shanghai Electric Group, Wu Hongmei, former deputy
director of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration
Commission of Shanghai Municipal Government, and Wang Guoxiong,
former general manager of Shanghai Industrial Investment Group.
The officials will also face criminal charges, the commission
said.
The decision was made according to Party discipline rules and
the Law on Public Servants, and has been approved by the Shanghai
Municipal Government and the CPC Shanghai Committee, the commission
said.
The Shanghai social security fund scandal is the city's biggest
scandal since economic reforms began.
Revealed to the public last year, it involved 3.7 billion yuan
(US$474 million), including 3.45 billion yuan (US$442 million) in
principal and 250 million yuan (US$32 million) of interest.
The scandal has led to the downfall of over a dozen senior
officials and businessmen, including Chen Liangyu, former secretary
of the Shanghai Municipal Committee of Communist Party of China
(CPC) and Qiu Xiaohua, former head of the National Bureau of
Statistics.
In the wake of the scandal, Shanghai set up a working panel to
help the central government investigators trace the misappropriated
funds.
Shanghai Mayor Han Zheng said in January this year that the city
has retrieved all the money siphoned from the Shanghai social
security fund for illicit loans and investments last year, and has
completely overhauled management of the system.
(Xinhua News Agency March 2, 2007)