China's telecom sector faces graft probe
(CRI English)
Updated: 2004-11-09 10:29

Beijing's anti-graft investigators are expected to launch a probe into the multibillion-dollar deals Lucent Technologies and other foreign telecom equipment makers have secured to supply the country's vast telecom market.

Lucent Technologies, one of the biggest US telecom equipment makers, has reportedly turned over to investigators an 800-page report into possible violations of a US anti-corruption law involving its China operations.

South China Morning Post quotes sources as saying the anti-corruption bureau of the Beijing Municipal People's Procuratorate is having the report translated.

They believe investigators would use the report to launch a comprehensive probe of the country's whole telecom industry. Investigators are hopeful the report will provide the names of individuals and companies implicated in the violations.

Most of China's telecom companies are Lucent clients, including China Telecom, China Unicom and China Netcom. Some telecom officials and operators have allegedly received huge kickbacks for approving purchases of equipment worth hundreds of millions of US dollars from foreign and domestic makers.

Officials from Lucent's China operations said they were not aware of the report being handed to investigators, while the company's Asia-Pacific office declined to comment.

In April, Lucent Technologies announced it had dismissed four senior executives from its China operations for allegedly violating the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.