Going after flies
CCTV documentary highlights damage done by grass- roots graft
local welfare office director Zhang Shilong stole Xiao Jing’s relief funds for nine months in 2013.
Not only Xiao Jing’s funds, Zhang embezzled other 20 some children’s welfare relief fund over the nine months which came to a total of 157,400 yuan. Some of the children are like Xiao Jing, with disabled parents, and some children are orphans.
Zhang said that he did it to make up his losses in the stock market.
Ningyang county’s Party disciplinary organ finally investigated Zhang and expelled him from the Party after receiving tip- offs. Zhang was sentenced to 10 years and six months in prison.
Sang Genchen, vice deputy of the Ningyang county discipline inspection bureau, said that Zhang’s acts sparked public anger as grass- roots officials dealt with the public directly.
“What the public is concerned about more is the actual behavior of those officials. If grass- roots corruption isn’t curbed, it will shake the foundation of the Party and the eventually shake the public’s trust to the Party and government, said Cheng Wenhao, director of the AntiCorruption Research Center at Tsinghua University.
Busted chief
Huaibei in East China’s Anhui Province used to be a coal city with many villages opening collectively- owned mines before the country closed down small coal mines.
No. 2 Youyi coal mine in Huaibei’s Lieshan village is now shut down, but its business was thriving a decade ago. The former mine manager, Liu Dawei, gradually grew into the village’s real power after becoming the [ Liu] splashed the money you earned. Now the village turns from the richest to the poorest … People outside used to say that even Lieshan’s dogs could find lovers, but now young villagers can no longer find partners,” a villager was quoted as saying in the TV documentary.
Liu pocketed the villagers’ assets for years, and never made public the operation conditions of the village’s companies.
Liu even allegedly hired mafia- like gangs to beat villagers who questioned him.
Villagers told the documentary makers that Liu has someone “up top” who protects him.
The investigation results confirmed villagers’ suspicions.
Several government officials from Lieshan district, which administers Lieshan village, also allegedly took bribes from Liu.
After Liu was arrested, villagers in Lieshan held banners and set off firecrackers to celebrate.
Liu’s case showed the chaotic management of village assets, out of control village officials and local discipline commission’s negligence.
The central government has made it clear that provincial and city Party committees and discipline commissions have to pass the pressure of implementing regulations to the local level, adding that local committees have to make dealing with corruption involving infringing the interests of the public their priority.