The disciplinary watchdog of the Communist Party of China has sacked or demoted 27 officials of local governments across the country for misusing or wasting funds to construct lavish office buildings.

 

The CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, together with six other central-government agencies, including the Ministry of Supervision and the National Audit Office, yesterday announced the punishment handed out to the officials.

 

The government of Puyang, a county in central Henan Province, headed the official black list.

 

Despite being one of the poorest counties in the province, Puyang's Party committee and government built an office block that went way beyond budget - minus any application.

 

This caused a flow-on effect, with several local authorities also erecting extravagant buildings. Construction kicked off in September 2002 on the new office building for the county's Party committee and the county government, with planned floor space of 15,000 square meters and a budget of 9.75 million yuan (US$1.22 million).

 

But in June 2004 when the building was completed, its space was 18,746.36 square meters, and the construction costs totaled more than 32 million yuan.

 

According to the disciplinary inspectors, 1.34 million yuan of the construction cost is still owing.

 

The county's disciplinary commission was found to have begun to build an office building in April 2004 as a training center for cadres, without approval. The project was planned to cover 3,704 square meters and cost four million yuan.

 

More than 6.45 million yuan has been paid for the construction, though the project remains unfinished. The county's labor and social security bureau was accused of appropriating 7.7 million yuan from the pension fund of laid-off employees. The funds were used to build an office and a vocational training center.

 

A number of government officials in the county were found to have changed the purposes of allocated land to build 79 personal apartments without permission. The biggest apartment was 600 square meters, and the smallest 281 square meters.

 

Authorities have meted out punishment to 18 officials of the county, including its former Party Secretary He Guangbo, who received a demotion and a serious warning - a penalty expected to handicap future promotions.

 

Gao Zhixin has been dismissed from the posts as Party secretary of the Shanxi provincial grain administration and administration director. Gao was also investigated by legal authorities over other matters.

 

The administration misappropriated 1.5 million yuan from national grain reserve funds to help build a 6.9-million-yuan hotel project in a scenic spot in the province's Yongji County. State-owned enterprises under the administration were asked to contribute the other 5.4 million yuan.

 

The news comes hot on the heels of a circular issued in March by the General Office of the State Council and the General Office of the CPC Central Committee in response to public discontent, reiterating the ban on construction of extravagant government buildings, including departmental hotels and entertainment centers.

 

The seven state agencies said they will launch a nationwide campaign over the next two months to track down illegal and wasteful government buildings.

 

(Shanghai Daily June 2, 2007)