A former deputy director of the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Communications is expected to be arrested on charges of taking 60 million yuan (US$7.2 million) in bribes, according to the China Times.

Unconfirmed reports in the Beijing paper said the decision to arrest Bi Yuxi, also formerly the chairman of the Beijing Capital Highway Development Company, would be made by Sunday.

The Beijing Municipal Commission for Discipline Inspection of the Communist Party of China has confirmed that it found that Bi accepted large bribes between 1994 and 2003, when he held both posts.

The commission said he was then instrumental in helping others make illegal profits in expressway construction and related projects.

Inspectors became suspicious earlier this year as they were looking into the Fifth Ring Road project in Beijing.

The actual cost of building the road, which opened to traffic in November last year, overshot the budget by some 100 million yuan (US$12 million), the inspectors found.

On August 8, police detained Bi on suspicion of accepting bribes.

"There is still no official announcement concerning the issue," Procuratorate Press Office Director Bai Xixi said Tuesday.

Bai did not deny that an investigation was under way and said he could not be sure whether an official statement would be made.

Bi was expelled from the Communist Party of China (CPC) earlier this month for his part in the case, following a decision by the Beijing Municipal Commission for Discipline Inspection of the CPC.

The commission determined that Bi had accepted many bribes while he was in the communications bureau and the highway development company.

The Beijing Capital Highway Development Company is the state-run entity responsible for construction and operation of expressways in the capital city, including the Fifth Ring Road.

Jin Demin, former highway development company assistant manager, was arrested on August 9 on suspicion of graft, and a labor contractor suspected of bribing Bi in the Fifth Ring Road project has also been arrested.

Before taking the post in the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Communications in 1994, Bi was head of the capital city's Daxing County government.

The Beijing cases follow similar high-profile investigations in Jiangsu and Anhui provinces.

(China Daily August 18, 2004)