Government officials disciplined for owning coal mine shares

China's Ministry of Supervision announced on Friday that 315 government officials and heads of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) have been disciplined this year for owning shares in coal mines.

"Forty-five people are under judicial investigation," Chen Changzhi, Vice Minister of Supervision, said. "The ministry has received 1,022 reports of such offences -- 928 have been investigated."

The disciplined officials were from the public security, prosecuting departments and agricultural agency sectors, according to the ministry.

The ministry cited "typical cases", including one official named Li Guojun, who was involved in the Liuguantun Coalmine in Kaiping District of Tangshan.

A gas explosion occurred at the mine on Dec. 7 last year, leaving 91 dead and 17 missing.

Li, deputy director of the Public Security Bureau of Kaiping, in north China's Hebei Province, invested 500,000 yuan (62,500 U.S. dollars) in the colliery in 2002 and had reaped 600,000 yuan (75,000 U.S. dollars) in dividends by July last year.

Li had been transferred to the country's judicial authority, according to the ministry.

The government issued an ultimatum in August last year ordering government officials and heads of SOEs to report their investments in coal mines and to sell their shares by September 22, 2005.

Vice Minister Chen said 5,357 officials and SOE leaders had declared shares in coal mines worth a total 755 million yuan (95.6 million U.S. dollars) since the end of last year.

He said 709 million yuan (89.7 million U.S. dollars) had been withdrawn from coal mines across China since last December, accounting for 93.9 percent of such investment.

To improve supervision of the industry, the government set up a joint conference mechanism among six departments this year. Ten joint taskforces on coal mine safety have been dispatched to 22 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities.

Wang Shuhe, vice director of the State Administration on Coal Mine Safety, said China has investigated and prosecuted five coal mine accidents with death tolls above 30 this year.

"In two of the incidents, government officials were found to be colluding with coal mine owners," Wang said, adding this indicated the urgent need to sever the illegal connections between government officials and businessmen.

"Only when we solve the problem of officials working as protective umbrellas for enterprises, can we find a permanent way to prevent coal mine accidents," Wang said.

Source: Xinhua