Beijing corruption case ensnares another official

BEIJING, Dec 7 (Reuters) Another senior official has become embroiled in a Beijing Olympics corruption scandal which has already cost a vice-mayor his job, but Games organisers said they had stepped up vigilance against graft.

Wu Jingjun, chief engineer of Olympic venue construction, said that Jin Yan, one-time deputy to sacked Beijing vice-mayor Liu Zhihua, was ''helping'' with the investigation into Liu.

Liu had been in charge of building of the Olympic venues as well as the 40 billion dollar upgrade of the city's infrastructure in time for the Games. He was fired in June accused of corruption and bad morals.

''The city government pays great attention to this problem of how to make sure we tackle corruption in the light of the Liu Zhihua issue and make sure we have a transparent Olympics,'' Wu told a news conference.

''After the Liu Zhihua case came out, although it was a personal problem, the city government increased supervision over Olympic venue construction. We are confident that the building process will be even more transparent,'' he added.

Wu, looking uncomfortable and awkward, repeated the statement of the Beijing Organising Committee for the Olympic Games at the time that Liu was neither a member of that body and nor would his case affect construction.

''The Liu Zhihua problem is a personal one, and has nothing to do with Olympic venue construction,'' he said. ''Construction will not be affected because of the Liu Zhihua problem.'' He provided no other details of what Liu was accused of, saying only of the probe into his case that: ''Jin Yan is helping in the investigation''.

In a sign perhaps of how sensitive organisers are about the case, a Web cast of the news conference carried on the Beijing games' official Web site (www.beijing2008.com) made no mention of questions about Liu or the answers given.

The International Olympic Committee values transparency above all after being rocked by a huge bribery scandal in the late 1990s surrounding bids to host the Games.

Until Liu's dismissal, the only issue causing the committee concern had been that the construction of the venues might be moving too quickly and Beijing risked running up huge bills maintaining empty facilities.

In China the ruling Communist Party has embarked on a huge corruption drive over the last few years with nearly 50,000 officials prosecuted and punished up to the end of 2005.

But on a brighter note, officials said venue construction was on schedule to be finished by the end of 2007, on budget and so far without any of the 26,000 workers on the project being seriously injured.

Beijing is building or refurbishing 31 venues in the city for the Olympics, which will begin on the auspicious date of Aug. 8 2008.

''So far there have been no serious injuries or deaths,'' Wu said. ''The safety situation is under control. Compared with most construction sites, this is a good status to be at.

''I think the construction costs and investment are now under control,'' added Wang Gang, deputy director of the Beijing 2008 Project Construction Headquarters Office.

REUTERS PM BST1114