Probes net 70 SOE bosses

Sun Zhaoxue, general manager of China Aluminum Corp, speaks at a press conference in Henan province, Dec 17, 2013. [Photo/IC]

In the financial sector, 13 officials and executives were suspected of being involved in corruption.

Li Chengyan, a professor of anti-corruption studies at Peking University, said executives in the financial sector have the power to distribute huge amounts of money without being subject to any effective supervisory mechanism.

In the media sector, eight TV producers and anchors in the economic news department at China Central Television were arrested from May to July. Nine heads of other media organizations were also arrested last year.

Guo Zhenxi, head of the financial channel at CCTV was charged with taking bribes worth 2 billion yuan in eight years while he was serving as a producer in the economic news department.

Lu Gaofeng, a professor of communication at the University of Science and Engineering in Zhejiang, said Guo misused his power with two TV programs, one to expose the misbehavior of companies and another to issue rewards for annual economic figures. He used the programs to extort money from companies with illegal operations and solicit money from companies seeking positive reports on the TV program.

Yan Jirong, a professor at Peking University's School of Government, said the corruption cases that have kept cropping up in SOEs reflect their controlling power in the country's major industrial sectors.

"When the executives have sufficient power to decide the result of mega projects, they have the opportunity to accept bribes. An urgent need exists to limit the power of distributing national resources and to make decision-making processes transparent to the public," Yan said.

The top anti-graft watchdog said on Thursday it had investigated 325 cases related to misuse of power by the State-owned assets supervisory body last year and provided 423 whistle blowing reports for enterprises to check regarding misconduct in their business operations.

It urged the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission to play its role and investigate the whistleblowing reports.