Prison recruits get 'special care'

Source: Xinhua  |   2008-6-4  |     NEWSPAPER EDITION

AUTHORITIES in south China's Guangdong Province said yesterday they were investigating a suspected prison police recruitment scandal involving "special handling" notes for some candidates.

Li Xiao, deputy director of the Guangdong Provincial Department of Justice information office, said that the department was probing the case, but recruitment was still under way.

The province's prisons are recruiting 400 police. A total of 5,509 applicants sat written exams. Of these, 695 qualified for interviews carried out from May 14 to 16.

The names of 146 candidates who took the written exams and underwent interviews were posted on the Internet by a netizen last Wednesday. The posting showed that of the 146 job hopefuls, 61 had a "special care" note after their names. The notes listed the applicant's relatives, including officials, or the names of those who had recommended them.

Netizens said the list was posted on the official Website of the Guangdong Provincial Prison Administration on May 12, but was quickly deleted and replaced. However, some candidates had downloaded the original list and found the notations in hidden cells in the spreadsheet.

When the administration announced the rankings of the candidates on May 19, netizens revealed that all of the 61 candidates with "special care" notes had made it through to the next, and usually final, recruitment phase.

The Beijing News interviewed an official named Xu Lin, whose name was appended to that of candidate Zhong Shengwen. "I have no relationship with Zhong at all," Xu, a Shenzhen city justice official, was quoted as saying. "I recommended Zhong only because he was excellent."

The Guangdong Provincial Prison Administration posted a public apology on its site on Friday. It said some parents or relatives of the candidates had been eager to know the results of the exams and contacted the administration to ask about the recruitment progress. The administration staff had made the notations "with the view to improving services to make candidates and parents satisfied".

But due to an error, the notes had been made public together with the exam results, it said.