BEIJING - The human resources authorities are investigating a case in which some candidates to government posts in Guizhou claimed that the results of the provincial civil servant recruitment exam were manipulated. It is alleged that the results of physical checks on candidates were tampered with, said a local official.

The Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, which oversees the country's civil servant exams, dispatched a team on Saturday to Guizhou, in Southwest China, to investigate the case, Luo Yucheng, deputy director at the general office of Guizhou provincial department of human resources and social security, told China Daily on Monday.

As many as 133 of the 1,497 examinees who took the physical checks after passing the written exam and interview, were found to have an abnormal blood count, and thus disqualified, according to a report by China Youth Daily on Friday.

At least 10 applicants told the newspaper that they doubted the credibility of the physical check reports. Most of them went through similar physical checks in hospitals other than the Armed Police Guizhou Corps Hospital - the designated authority in this case - and claimed to have no irregularities.

Wang Xiaoyong, a 26-year-old university graduate who applied for a post in Jinhua township, was told that he had a higher blood pressure in the physical test conducted in August, which he thought was a mistake.

"I am a 100-meter racing champion," Wang told China Daily on Sunday. "I took a physical check in another hospital four days before the physical test and it showed that my blood pressure was normal."

To prove that his blood pressure was normal, Wang went through a physical check on the same day at the Guizhou Provincial People's Hospital, one of the best hospitals in the province. The report said that his blood pressure was found to be normal.

"When I went back to the Armed Police Guizhou Corps Hospital and showed the doctor my physical check report, I was told that the new report was invalid," Wang said.

Wang said at least seven of his friends who applied for a government post have met with the same fate.

Wu Bingqi, an applicant for a post in a Guiyang government department, who won the first place in the written test and interview, was found to have a low level of white corpuscles when he took medical checkup on Aug 15.

"The standard count of the white blood cells is 4,000 to 10,000 per microliter. The Armed Police Guizhou Corps Hospital said mine was 3,900," Wu said. "However, I took a test at the Guizhou Provincial People's Hospital and the figure came to 4,410."

A female employee at the general office of the Armed Police Guizhou Corps Hospital refused to comment on the case when contacted by China Daily on the phone on Sunday.

"It's a sensitive issue. If you want to follow it up, you can ask the provincial publicity department," she said. "The hospital has nothing to tell you."

This is not the first time that fudging physical test scores to manipulate the results of civil servant's recruitment exam is being alleged.

Song Jiangming, a civil servant applicant who topped the list of successful candidates for a post in Changzhi environmental protection bureau in Shanxi, was told he had a low haemoglobin count, after taking the medical checkup in August. Song went to four other hospitals, all of whom certified his haemoglobin level as normal, according to China Youth Daily on Nov 9.

The provincial supervision department investigated the case and found that Song's physical check report was tampered with. Two officials in Changzhi human resources and social security bureau were dismissed and four people in the hospital in charge of the physical test were punished.

Song was finally hired by the bureau, said the report.