Liaison offices in fake Moutai scandal

(China Daily)
Updated: 2009-04-18 09:44

ZHENGZHOU -- Governments of two cities in Henan Province are investigating claims that their Beijing liaison offices spent almost $100,000 on luxury liquor that turned out to be fake.

Heads of the two offices have also been reprimanded by the municipal governments of Luohe and Xuchang, officials said.

According to media reports, the two offices spent more than 660,000 yuan on 777 bottles of Kweichow Moutai, the top liquor in China, in early February.

The case came to light after guests of the offices drank the spirits, which are produced in southwest China's Guizhou Province, and found they were fake.

Police later arrested three suspects, whose status at present isn't known.

The offices paid an average of 849 yuan per bottle, which is equivalent to almost 18 percent of the national average income for farmers.

Local governments began to set up liaison offices in Beijing in 1949. It is estimated that the current number of such offices is more than 10,000 - which has been criticised by some as excessive.

Local authorities like liaison offices in Beijing because they want more resources from ministries that are based in the capital city.

A comment published by the People's Daily, the mouthpiece of the Communist Party in China, questioned whether the buyers could get their money back, and if not, who should shoulder the loss for the fake liquor?

The paper said the case was an example of the lack of transparency and supervision in government expenditures.

The heads of the liaison offices claimed that they had bought the liquor on behalf of a hotel and a paper-making company in Henan.