Sloppy officials face the music

A tough job

Despite Chen's initial hopes, solving the problems posed by the chemicals warehouse was easier said than done. It was constructed in the 1950s when the area was not so populous and in 2004, the owner Jiang Tiejun started to store the acids on open ground outside the warehouse because he was worried that the building would collapse.

In 2008, Chen Zhenling and 2,000 other families moved to Huize. The new residents attempted to talk to Jiang, to ask him to relocate his facility, but he always avoided meeting them.

Following Chen's call, the complaint office forwarded a report to the bureaus of environmental protection and urban management in May. Both had to respond within 10 days, according to regulations. Then came the meeting and Jiang's promise.

The complaint office makes unscheduled visits to check the result of each case. On June 15, the date the containers were supposed to be sealed, Liu Yong, a complaint office employee, visited the warehouse to check adherence to the agreement. He concealed his car's license plate for fear that observers would either stop him or warn Jiang of his impending arrival.

Xie Bin, a reporter from Chenzhou TV station, shot footage of the warehouse. A thick, heavy cloud was fizzing from one of the containers and Liu said he felt dizzy after breathing the pungent odor for 10 minutes, as did Xie. Liu called both bureaus and insisted, "You must come to the scene right now."

Officials rushed to the scene. When Liu asked why the problem still existed, Zhong Wenjun, an urban management officer, said pipelines running to the warehouse had been destroyed the previous day. However, Jiang said he was still waiting for a permit from the provincial authorities to find another location, so the containers had remained in situ. "All my men are retired soldiers and they need this work to survive," he told the officials. "I did all I could to cooperate, but that's all I can do now."

After 30 minutes' negotiation, Jiang ordered his men to cover the containers and promised to move the acid as soon as the permit was issued.

"Things are still not settled, so we'll have to wait until July 30 to see if the containers will be taken away," said Chen. "But I am still thankful to the complaint office."

Implementation checks can be a risky business. In April, a resident in Qinghe township in Guiyang county reported that the local government had done nothing to prevent a private company from engaging in illegal sand extraction, causing pollution and disturbing residents at night.

When Lei Xudong from the complaint office visited the site with colleagues, they were warned that the owner might send guards to beat them if he suspected they were gathering evidence. Township officials had required police protection after being threatened by dozens of guards during a previous checkup.

"We were not scared, but didn't want to put our lives in danger, so the cameraman had to shoot his footage with a zoom lens," said Lei.

Restore trust

Although locals were encouraged to file their complaints and the hotline number was put up at bus stops, on TV and in local newspapers, many residents were initially scornful of the complaint office. To some extent, they felt that it was simply "a show", so Chen asked a friend to make a trial run and contact the office with a complaint. "The office called back promptly and sent officials to his home," said Chen. "For me, that was a sign that they were really doing something, instead of just shouting slogans."

Liu Guangyue, secretary of the Chenzhou commission for discipline inspection, suggested that previous cases of corruption were likely responsible for the distrust.

From 2006 to 2009, a series of corruption cases involving top officials shocked locals and the provincial government. In 2008, former Party chief Li Dalun was sentenced to death with a two-year grace period. Li and his wife had been convicted of taking bribes totaling 14 million yuan ($2.2 million). Moreover, he was unable to explain his personal fortune of 17 million yuan.

The same year, Zeng Jinchun, former secretary of the Chenzhou commission for discipline inspection, was executed after being convicted of taking 195 bribes. Meanwhile, a former mayor, Zhou Zhengkun, was sentenced to life in prison for accepting bribes worth 13.26 million yuan. Finally, a former deputy mayor Lei Yuanli was handed a 20-year sentence after being found guilty of taking 7.21 million yuan in bribes.