State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) is highly concerned over the transnational bribery case involving several stated-owned Chinese enterprises, and has establish an investigation group to probe into the case, said an official with the SASAC, who declined to be named Friday.

Control Components Inc. (CCI), a California-based valve manufacturer, is believed to have bribed officials in several Chinese state-owned enterprises (SOEs).

According to a statement issued by the Department of Justice of the United States on July 31, the alleged corrupt payments were made to officials at six SOEs. They include Jiangsu Nuclear Power Corp., Guohua Electric Power, China Petroleum Materials and Equipment Corp., PetroChina, Dongfang Electric Corp., China National Offshore Oil Corp. (CNOOC).

However, according to a report in the Global Times Thursday, three more Chinese companies were involved in the bribery case -- the Datang Power, Dingzhou Power and China Resources Power Holding Co.

The SASAC has ordered the involved enterprises to conduct internal investigations and report the results at the earliest possible time.

According to the U.S. Department of Justice statement, CCI admitted that from 2003 through 2007, it made approximately 236 payments in violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and the Travel Act in more than 30 countries, which resulted in net profits to the company of approximately 46.5 million U.S. dollars from sales related to those corrupt payments.

The U.S. firm entered guilty pleas in the Central District of California, Santa Ana Division. As part of the plea agreement, the company agreed to pay a criminal fine of 18.2 million U.S. dollars.

CNOOC, Dongfang Electric Corp., and Guohua Electric Power Corp., has denied involvement in the bribery case after internal investigations.

(Xinhua News Agency August 22, 2009)