Baidu sacks eight staff for alleged corruption

Search engine giant Baidu Inc confirmed on Wednesday that eight of its staff members have been dismissed and transferred to judicial authorities due to alleged corruption.

The company said in an internal letter that its internal anti-corruption investigation found four of its departmental directors and four sales staff from district branches were suspected of taking bribes.

The four suspected directors, before being removed from their positions, were in charge of Baidu's sales, channel and marketing departments.

"Internal anti-corruption action creates a fair and transparent workplace, and a healthy environment for employee development," Baidu told China Daily in an e-mailed response.

"We ask our staff to respect company ethics and national laws, to create a healthy and fair working environment," the statement said.

This is not the first time that Baidu has conducted internal probes to tackle wrongdoings in the company. In 2012, the search engine group fired four of its employees for bribery. In November last year, Baidu also made headlines for having fired five executives for bribery and illicit appropriation.

Analysts said that Baidu's decision to launch an internal probe could be regarded as a clear sign that the company is taking serious action to maintain its credibility and show that it would not tolerate any misconduct.