Three other top environmental officials who reported to Zhang Lijun in custody, report says
South China Morning Post
Mimi Lau in Guangzhou
August 4, 2015
Zhang Lijun is the environment ministry’s first “tiger” to come under the corruption spotlight. Photo: Ricky Chung
More heads are set to roll in the corruption scandal involving China’s Ministry of Environmental Protection after the former deputy minister Zhang Lijun became the first senior environmental cadre to be investigated last month.
According to a report by Prism, the financial news portal of the Tencent internet conglomerate, three other senior ministerial officials who reported to Zhang have also been detained by the authorities.
Another senior official who ranked higher than Zhang had also been tipped off as a graft target by a letter of complaint, the report said on Monday.
Authorities announced the investigation against Zhang, 63, last week. His toppling is set to unleash a wave of corruption scandals within the ministry.
Inspectors from the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, the Communist Party’s top-level anti-graft body, found some officials had profited by running risk-assessment agencies or their relatives had intervened to influence the outcome of reviews. The CCDI did not name guilty officials, but said the review system was flawed and needed to be reformed.
Citing numerous environmental protection officials, Prism said Zhang was accused of abusing power for personal gain of a large sum of money that he gave to his subordinates and family members.
Prism also cited an anti-graft watchdog source as confirming the graft investigation against Zhang started when a 2014 letter of complaint accused him and other ministry officials of soliciting illicit profits by manipulating state environmental standards on vehicle emissions.
In a statement last Thursday, the CCDI said Zhang had been detained for serious violations of party discipline and law – a stock euphemism for corruption – but gave no details of the allegations.
Zhang, a 24-year veteran of the environmental protection sector who served as the deputy minister from 2008 to 2013, is the ministry’s first “tiger” – senior official – to come under the corruption spotlight.
President Xi Jinping pledged to go after “tigers and flies” – high and low-ranking officials – when he launched his anti-graft campaign after taking power three years ago.
The 2014 letter of complaint also included allegations that emissions-testing equipment standards were adapted for the benefit of a well-connected Shenzhen-based contractor.
Bribes were accepted in return for agreeing to add carmakers’ vehicle models to lists that stated the vehicles had passed stringent new emissions standards, the letter added.
