Less than a month after China’s anti-corruption authorities set up shop at an electrical provider in Guangdong Province, they sacked four of the firm’s bosses, including the director.
Reports and interviews by mainland Chinese media show how bribery and graft became part of the Southern Power Grid Company’s standard operating procedure in all but name.
On March 6, the Communist Party’s anti-corruption commission sent a team to investigate the company. On the 30th, Qi Dacai, company director and one of the deputy general managers, along with two other executives, had been sacked for as-of-then unknown charges.
But the proverbial thunderstorm wasn’t over. On April 2, China’s Supreme People’s Procuratorate announced on its website that it had directed the Guangdong branch of the People’s Procuratorate to start an investigation into Xiao Peng, also a deputy general manager at the Grid Company.
Bribery seems to be high on the list of Xiao’s charges. The Grid Company reportedly sold positions and made shady deals with other firms by unscrupulously altering its electricity pricing.
