4,500 officials report shares in coal mines
By Jiang Zhuqing (China Daily)
Updated: 2005-11-02 05:41

Statistics indicate that about 6,000 miners are killed in colliery accidents each year as a result of work safety loopholes.

Government officials are forbidden by law to acquire shares of non-listed companies. But some corrupt officials ignored the restrictions and raked in huge amounts of money through direct investment or share options in some private coal mines.

They have abused their power, accepted bribes and helped cover up fatal coal mine accidents, said Li.

For example, Hu Jianchang, vice-director of the provincial bureau of work safety in South China's Guangdong Province, took 100,000 yuan (US$12,000) in bribes to issue a safety certificate to Daxing Coal Mine on June 5. A month later, a flooding incident occurred, killing 121 miners.

According to Chen, the government will ensure that various localities check and complete the registration work as soon as possible and prevent any fraud during the share reporting process.

"We will thoroughly investigate the exact situation of the people withdrawing shares," he said.

A joint inspection group will soon be set up to check the implementation of the drive, he said.

"Those who have transferred their colliery shares to other people or are holding shares secretly will be removed from their posts outright and be held liable for administrative or criminal punishment," Chen said.

To improve the coal-mine safety record, SAWS has suspended the production of more than 8,600 collieries, mainly small ones that could not meet the requirement of safety standards, said Li.

SAWS's data indicates that China has more than 27,000 coal mines, of which 24,000 are medium- or small-sized ones.

(China Daily 11/02/2005 page1)