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Bribery cited in hasty job transfers

By Wang Qian (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-09-24 08:54

An education director in Hebei province is under investigation for bribery after he issued a flurry of personnel transfers the night before he retired.

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A report into the incident says that on Aug 19, his last night on the job, former director Feng Yunsheng transferred about 253 teachers from 11 schools covering 21 towns and counties in Wu'an.

The biggest chunk of the transfers, 148, were teachers moving from rural to urban schools, leaving the rural schools short of teachers while overstaffing the urban ones.

Zhao Zhenyou, head of the local organization department, told China Daily yesterday that further investigations into bribery will be conducted.

An insider suggested to China Youth Daily that Feng made the hasty transfers because he accepted hefty bribes.

"If a teacher knew senior officials at the education bureau, directly or indirectly, 30,000 yuan ($4,400) would be OK. If not, 50,000 yuan is the minimum," a local education official told the paper.

The newspaper also quoted an Internet post saying that transfers to urban schools cost upwards of 100,000 yuan, or even as much as 200,000 yuan.

But the original post was deleted from forums and websites for unknown reasons.

Officials from the local education bureau and discipline inspection departments refused to comment yesterday, while Feng's mobile phone was shut off during the day.

Feng was director of the Wu'an education bureau for 12 years.

Wu'an has a population of about 720,000 people, with 630,000 living in the rural area. Yet more than 5,300 teachers work in urban schools, while about 4,900 work in rural schools.

The investigation reported that this year the urban schools still need 558 teachers, and the major problem in the sudden transfers is that the chosen schools do not need so many teachers.

But many experts questioned the credibility of the investigation report.

Niu Baozeng, a staff member in the Datong education bureau, said that every year several teachers in the town transfer to urban schools, which impacts other rural teachers.

"For sure it's the rural schools' lack of teachers, not the urban ones. Working in urban schools is a dream to most rural teachers, with better salary, benefits and social welfare," Niu told China Youth Daily.

Zhang Guoqing, director of the Public Administration and Management Center of Peking University, said that a power-for-money deal might be a reason for the sudden personnel transfers.