Shanghai Mayor Han Zheng said yesterday that all the money
that was siphoned off from the city's social security fund for
illicit loans and investments has been recovered.
?
"Thanks to our meticulous efforts and the joint work of all parties
concerned, especially the newly-established municipal work group to
recover social security funds, we have reclaimed in full the
misappropriated funds," Han announced in his government work report
at the opening of the annual Shanghai Municipal People's
Congress.
He did not reveal the amount of the money recovered but the
Xinhua News Agency website put the figure at 3.7 billion yuan ($474
million) yesterday.
Investigators found the money had been illegally loaned by a
company of the municipal labor and social security bureau to
Shanghai Feidian Investment Development Co Ltd, a company
controlled by business tycoon Zhang Rongkun, ranked No 16 on the
Forbes China Rich List in 2005.
Zhang was the first person arrested in the scandal, which also
brought down Shanghai's former Party chief Chen Liangyu. Chen, 59,
is the highest level Party official to be axed in more than a
decade.
Shanghai set up a work panel to help central government
investigators trace the misappropriated funds, said Han, also
acting secretary of the Shanghai Municipal Committee of the
Communist Party of China.
He said the city has a lesson to learn from the pension scandal.
"It revealed systemic defects and management loopholes. We must
take the problems seriously, draw a lesson and improve our
work."
He said the municipal government has given top priority to the
fight against corruption, tightened supervision of officials and
improved transparency.
"We have to closely follow established rules and procedures and
check power abuse to prevent a recurrence of such scandals," said
Han.
The Shanghai scandal, which unfolded in September, also involved
former national top statistician Qiu Xiaohua and dozens of city
officials and business people.
In November 2006, Shanghai released a guideline on the city's
pension fund management which stipulates that any government
department or company involved in the fund must make its balance
sheet available for public supervision.
Also, a commission is being established to supervise the
operation of the 10 billion yuan ($1.28 billion) pension fund.
"The investigation of Chen Liangyu demonstrates the Party's
determination to fight corruption," Han said.
Other officials under investigation include Wu Hongmei, former
deputy director of the Shanghai branch of the State-owned Assets
Supervision and Administration Commission, and Zhu Wenjin, a deputy
division head of the Shanghai Municipal Housing, Land and Resource
Administration.
(China Daily January 29, 2007)