Two officials who were disciplined in the tainted milk scandal that sickened hundreds of thousands of children have been reappointed to new posts, sources said yesterday.

Bao Junkai, former deputy director general of the food production supervision department of General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ) was among the latest eight senior officials fired or demoted for slack supervision with regard to the Sanlu scam, uncovered last September. At least six infants died and almost 300,000 fell ill after consuming tainted milk.

Liu Daqun, former director of the agricultural department in Hebei province, where the dairy at the center of the contamination was based, is now the mayor and deputy party secretary of Xingtai, a city in Hebei, the Beijing News reported yesterday. Li was also severely reprimanded in March.

Bao has been appointed the Party secretary and head of AQSIQ's Anhui provincial bureau since last December, when the milk power scandal was still in focus, the website of Anhui Entry-Exit Inspection and Quarantine shows.

AQSIQ yesterday said the appointment of Bao is in line with legal procedure.

The website published a number of news releases containing news about Bao - his visiting retired officials, going on business study and inspection tours in the province.

The 52-year-old Jiangsu native has had a long tenure in AQSIQ. When the milk scam broke out, he was serving as both deputy chief of food security bureau and deputy director general of food production supervision department.

Some Internet users said his comeback was strange and "trampled public feelings".

Several officials found partially responsible for major accidents or scandals have mysteriously come back to new posts.

Deputy county chief Wang Zhenjun of Hongdong county, Shanxi province, who was in office during the fatal mud-rock flow causing 254 deaths last year, returned as assistant county chief recently.

"It is unthinkable for a senior qualification inspection official to be secretly promoted to another post when the whole country was still outraged and the central government still investigating the case," a netizen named Wanlai wrote on Xinhuanet.com, adding that such 'tainted' officials could be reused again if they corrected their mistakes and were proved eligible for new posts.

Ren Jin, a professor with National School of Administration, said the absence of an officials' accountability mechanism allowed the easy return of questionable officials.

(China Daily April 10, 2009)