The buying or selling of government jobs has resulted in eight Communist Party of China (CPC) officials being punished, some with long terms of imprisonment, said a CPC official at a news conference on Wednesday.

The news was revealed at a joint press conference held by CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) and the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee.

The official confirmed that Cao Yongbao, former deputy secretary of Liangshan Prefecture Committee of the CPC in southwest China's Sichuan Province, had been removed from his post, expelled from the Party and sentenced to 13 years jail.

He had taken advantage of his position to help other officials get promotions and job transfers between 1994 and 2004. He took bribes worth more than 1.5 million yuan (US$187,500). He was also unable to explain the source of other assets worth 1.074 million yuan (US$134,250) and US$11,800.

Another offender, Zhang Gaiping, received 1.069 million yuan (US$133,625) in bribes to help 28 people get promotions or transfers between November 2000 and September 2005. Zhang was a former member of the Standing Committee of Shangluo city committee of the CPC in the province of Shaanxi and secretary of the Shangzhou district committee of the CPC.

He has been removed from his post, expelled from the Party and is being investigated to determine whether he will be charged with criminal offences.

Lu Chengli, former deputy head of the town of Tangzhui in Wuchuan city, of south China's Guangdong Province, has been removed from his post and expelled from the Party. It was found that he rigged his election to deputy town head by feting the 12 delegates who nominated him and paying 55 delegates to the township people's congress 1,000 yuan (US$125) each in return for their votes.

Wang Fuyuan, Tang Yajun, Peng Youming, Tang Shangcheng and Yu Ling were also disciplined for trading Party posts, bribing delegates or arranging jobs for those they favored.

Liu Xirong, Deputy Secretary of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the CPC, called on Party inspectors and organizers at all levels to improve supervision of cadres in nationwide elections to township, county, prefecture and provincial Party Committees.

The CPC announced details of the scandals as a deterrent against similar corrupt practices while the Party plans to shuffle all its local leading cadres. This will involve more than 100,000 local CPC leaders.

The shuffle, to be completed in the first half of 2007, has become a priority for CPC leaders as it will have a major impact on their work for years to come.

"Our Party's disciplinary and organization bodies should increase their supervision to ensure the shuffle is carried out cleanly and smoothly," said Liu.

The Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee said in a meeting held last May that the CPC had investigated 27,616 Party members and disciplined 3,591 of them.

The commission and the department also issued a circular requiring all Party rules to be fully respected. In 2005 a total of 334 CPC officials were criticized for seeking illegal promotions and 97 were punished according to organizational or disciplinary rules.

"Officials who try this should not be promoted and, instead, be seriously criticized," said Wu Guangzheng, secretary of the CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection earlier in a speech.
 
"For those who trade official posts all the cases exposed should be handled in a tough way," he said.

(Xinhua News Agency July 20, 2006)