Bribes paid for driving exams

A major case involving paying bribes to pass driving tests has brought corruption in the country's vehicle management departments into the public spotlight.

The case has ensnared the former head of the vehicle management department in Zhanjiang, Guangdong province, who was recently sentenced to 10 years in prison, while the examiners turned in more than 21 million yuan ($3.6 million) in bribes they took from test takers.

The discipline inspection commission of Zhanjiang received frequent public tips in early 2012 that to pass the test for a driving license one needed to bribe the examiner. The commission then launched the investigation, together with the city's public security bureau.

Liang Zhixiong, the former department head, was found to be at the top of a chain that involved more than 40 examiners.

There was an "unspoken rule" that coaches at driving schools collected hongbao, or red envelopes containing money, from their students and passed them on to examiners for driving tests at the vehicle management departments, according to Zhanjiang Evening News.

Each of the four subjects in the driving test was "priced" at 100 yuan to 300 yuan, said the newspaper. The examiners could get bribes basically every day as long as there were someone taking the driving test, an investigator from the public security bureau was quoted as saying by the newspaper.

The examiners would bribe their boss Liang to be assigned "plum jobs" as frequently as possible. The court decided that Liang took bribes of 224,600 yuan during his term of office. Of the examiners involved in the case, 39 have turned in bribes they took from examinees that are worth more than 21 million yuan.

All the officers involved have been removed from their posts.

The unspoken rule of bribing examiners in driving tests may be common across the country, a poll on news portal Sina.com.cn in March found.

The poll was launched after a 25-year-old college student in Taiyuan, Shanxi province, posted on Sina Weibo in February that he encountered irregularities while taking the driving test.

"The test site's and the driving school's staff threatened me that they wouldn't book a road test for me if I didn't delete my post," the student said.

"It will be my fourth road test. I waited for half a year to book my test last time. I can't afford more waiting time."

"I hope that we can have a just and transparent driving test," he said.

xujingxi@chinadaily.com.cn