Chinese officials penalized for accidents at unauthorized power station

The Chinese Ministry of Supervision has imposed disciplinary sanctions against Hu'ercha, head of the Inner Mongolia regional development and reform commission, and several other officials for an accident at a construction site of an unauthorized power station that killed six and injured eight others in July last year.

Hu'ercha, director and Communist Party chief of the regional development and reform commission, and Huang Alatengbielige, former director of the land and resources department of the regional government, were ordered to write a self-criticism letter each to the regional government, the ministry said on Wednesday.

Others penalized include Ma Dacheng, deputy general-manager of the Xinfeng thermal power plant, and Wang Dong, general manager and Party chief at the plant. Ma was given a demerit and Wang was demoted. Both received a warning from the party organization.

Also penalized are Hao Zhiqiang, Xinfeng's general manager and chairman, who is also director of the electricity bureau of Ulanqab city, where the plant is located. He received a demerit and a warning by the party.

Zhao Fengshan, general manager and deputy party chief of the Inner Mongolia electricity group, received the same penalties for failing to stop the project.

The construction of the power plant was started in April 2004. It is designed to have two generating units each with a capacity of 300,000 kilowatts and be built at a cost of 2.89 billion yuan, or 366 million U.S. dollars.

According to a joint investigation by the ministry, the National Development and Reform Commission and seven other central departments, the project was started without following standard procedures in project approval, land acquisition and tendering.

The probe reveals that the regional and local authorities failed to stop the project from going on even after it was labeled illegal by central authorities.

To make it worse, the building housing the turbine generators collapsed while being built in July 2005, killing six people and injuring eight others.

The investigators blamed an unreasonably tight deadline and failure to observe construction standards for the accident.

Chen Hongjun and Guo Lei, both contractors of the plant building, shall be prosecuted for the responsibilities in the accident, the ministry said.

The ministry criticized the Inner Mongolia regional government for failing to enforce the central government's macrocontrol policies aimed at slowing down capital investment to prevent the economy from overheating.

The investigation revealed that unauthorized power stations being built in Inner Mongolia have a combined capacity of 8.6 million kilowatts.

In related developments, Yang Jing, chairman of north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, and his two deputies, Yue Fuhong and Zhao Shuanglian, have been ordered to write a letter of self-criticism each to the State Council for failing to stop billions of yuan of investment being poured into unauthorized power stations.

The decision was made at a Wednesday meeting of the State Council chaired by Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao.

The trio are the first senior local leaders to be sanctioned by the central government for ignoring its macrocontrol policies.

Source: Xinhua