Laos sanctions 50 provincial officials for corruption

Laos has sanctioned 50 provincial authorities in southern Salavan province for receiving bribes over the past five years, local media reported Wednesday.

The inspection authorities estimate that the state has lost more than 5 billion Lao kip (nearly 615,400 U.S. dollars) due to the payment of bribes to these corrupt officials, local Vientiane Times quoted the Provincial Committee of the State and Party Inspection as saying.

The provincial authorities were able to recoup a total of only 67 million Lao kip (over 8,246 U.S. dollars) from the 50 corrupt officials, who involved in illegal felling, purchase and sale of timber, with about 9,000 cubic meters of timber thought to have been illegally removed.

As such, six wrongdoers were punished, 21 were educated, five had their positions dissolved or were sent to lower ranking positions, while 18 members of the security forces and civil service were expelled.

According to a report presented at the third Congress of the Inspection Committee of the Party Central Committee held recently, more than 4.807 trillion Lao kip (over 591.63 million U.S. dollars) has been lost to corruption over the past five years and 734 targets were found involved. More than 303.1 million cubic meters of timber were found logged and sold illegally during the five-year period.

Sinai Mienglavanh, vice chairman of the Inspection Committee told the congress that more than 887 billion Lao kip (nearly 109.17 million U.S. dollars) of the money lost to corruption has been recovered, Sinai said.

Over the same period, some 1,806 cadres of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party have been disciplined as they violated the party's statutes and state laws in various cases. Of those, a total of 1,007 cadres were expelled from party membership. Endit