China's move to stop collusion between local government
officials and coal mine owners, a major cause of the country's
disturbing number of coal mining accidents, has achieved "new
progress," a senior supervisory official said on Friday.
To date, 5,357 officials either in government or in State-owned
enterprises have reported investment in coal mines totalling 755
million yuan (US$94.4 million), Vice-Minister of Supervision Chen
Changzhi said at a press conference.
Of that money, 709 million yuan (US$88.6 million), or 93.9
percent, has been withdrawn, Chen said of the year-long drive by
six ministerial departments to clear the interests of government
officials in collieries.
"Disciplinary or criminal penalties have been meted out to those
who invested with money generated through bribery, provided shields
for illegal operations in the collieries or refused to withdraw the
illicit investment," he added.
During the first half of this year, localities have dealt with
928 cases, giving administrative and disciplinary punishment to 270
officials and transferring 45 others to judicial departments, Chen
said.
For example, Li Guojun, vice-director of the Kaiping Branch
Bureau of Public Security in Tangshan, who invested 500,000 yuan
(US$62,500) in a local colliery in July 2002, raked in bonuses
totalling 600,000 yuan (US$74,500) by July 2005.
Li's case has been transferred to the judicial department for
further investigation of his role in an accident that killed more
than 100 people in a nearby colliery on December 7 last year, Chen
said.
"The ongoing campaign has played an important role in pushing
forward an honest and clean government," Huang Shengchu, president
of the China Coal Information Institute, told China Daily.
Moreover, it has helped reduce the number of accidents after
hundreds of thousands of smaller coal mines were shut down, he
noted.
On Tuesday, Li Yizhong, head of the State Administration of Work
Safety (SAWS), reported the number of coal mine accidents in the
first eight months of this year had dropped by 13.6 percent and the
resulting death toll fell by 25.5 percent compared with the same
period last year.
But Huang called for a long-term mechanism to uncover officials
investing in coal pits and prevent them from doing so.
"Huge investment in innovation, safety management and the
improvement of individual protection among miners are also needed
in this long-term mechanism," he said.
(China Daily September 23, 2006)
