Chinese army to look into corruption in staff housing projects

The People's Liberation Army (PLA) will start a two-year operation against malpractice and corruption in staff housing projects.

Due to loose supervision, there are a number of problems in staff housing projects, said Friday's PLA Daily quoting a notice from the PLA General Political Department, the PLA General Logistics Department and the PLA discipline inspection department.

Chinese armed forces have built affordable housing projects for officers and servicemen since 1999. They are supposed to be moderate in size and equipment and should not be sold to civilians.

However, the notice admitted that some housing projects were built out of budgets and aimed for luxury use. Some were sold to staff at unusually cheap prices and others were sold to civilians.

In this operation, the authorities will comb through all staff housing projects, exposing misconducts and closing loopholes, the newspaper said.

Those who do not take this operation serious and refuse to well implement it will not be tolerated but seriously punished, it said.

Gang Fangbin, a professor at the University of National Defense, told Saturday's Beijing News that housing projects normally involve huge amount of money and provide a big "grey area" for corrupt officers to maneuver.

Several high-profile officers in PLA logistics departments, which take charge of housing projects, have been sacked in the country's fierce anti-corruption operation.

They included Liu Zheng, deputy head of PLA General Logistics Department, who has been under investigation since November, and Gu Junshan, another deputy head of PLA General Logistics Department, who was charged with embezzlement, bribery, misuse of state funds and abuse of power. Endi