Bribery scandal at lavish district office

By Cyril Li  |   2008-12-31  |     NEWSPAPER EDITION

A 99-MEMBER subdistrict office in Zhejiang Province is under investigation for spending nearly 25 million yuan (US$3.66 million) on a 10-story office building.

With a total space of 16,996 square meters, the building in Taizhou City has 85 offices, not including conference rooms and waiting rooms, Zhejiang Workers' Daily reported yesterday.

Surrounded by a big garden, it still has 25 empty offices. Its sixth to 10th floors are currently empty and undecorated, the report said.

Each clerk at the Hongjia Subdistrict Office in Taizhou's Jiaojiang District enjoys 170 square meters of working space, even more than the offices of the country's ministers' and provincial governors'.

Two officials have been suspended from duty and referred to judicial authorities for allegedly taking bribes during the building's construction.

Jiang Xiaozheng, deputy director of Xiachen Subdistrict Office in Taizhou, allegedly took a bribe from an old schoolmate surnamed Jiang, and in return asked his brother-in-law, Lu Jia°?bin, to give the schoolmate the contract to install the building's electricity. Lu was the Party secretary of the Hongjia office and in charge of the building's construction.

Jiang's schoolmate allegedly paid him 200,000 yuan in cash, and Jiang allegedly paid Lu 80,000 yuan.

A task force has been set up to investigate the project.

Hongjia has been ordered to stick to government rules on office working space.