Blogger triggers probe of official
- Source: Global Times
- [03:37 March 05 2010]
- Comments
By An Baijie
An official in East China's Jiangsu Province, who apparently owns four luxurious villas and practices superstitious activities, is being investigated by the Party's disciplinary commission after he was exposed on a website.
Details about Zhang Yichun, deputy chief of the Organization Department of Ganyu county, were revealed by a local professional anti-corruption practitioner on Monday who provided details about the official on his anti-corruption blog.
Zhu Kongjian wrote about the villas and posted photos of the villas on the website.
The photos show one of the villas is as grand as the neighboring three-story official building used by the local judicial bureau.
Zhu said that Zhang built two ornamental columns similar to the one at Tian'anmen Square, as well as a replica of the Golden Water Bridge when he was the Party chief of Haitou township.
"Zhang did that in response to a fortuneteller's advice who said doing so could help him get promoted more easily," Zhu told the Global Times Thursday.
"It was a coincidence that Zhang got promoted 10 months after he began to construct the columns and the bridge, which made him more arrogant and he crazily accumulated wealth in illegal ways."
Zhu said that he had submitted the report to the local Party's disciplinary commis-sion.
He also asked the Party's supervision department to further investigate the issue.
Zhu said that the local cost of real estate is about 3,000 yuan ($439) per square meter, and the cost of the four villas was far beyond what the official could afford.
Zhu had previously reported six local officials to the local Party's disciplinary commission in July 2009 on bribery allegations.
All six were later sacked or demoted.
In November, Zhu reported on his blog that Wang Fen, the local Party's secretary of discipline, who headed the local political and judicial commission.
Wang was dismissed from her position at the local political and judicial commission two months later.
An employee in the office of the local Party's disciplinary commission told the Global Times over the phone Thursday that the commission has started an investigation into Zhang on Tuesday.
The employee, who refused to be identified, said that the investigation was in the initial stages.
The employee added that Zhang was still serving in his post.
