According to villagers, their land was requisitioned for less than 10,000 yuan ($1,607) per mu (0.067 hectares), while the government later sold it to developers for 30,000 to 50,000 yuan per mu.

Actually, Fang's abuse of power had already been exposed in 2004, and the district government decided to remove him from the post in 2005. However, that decision was not meted out.

Currently, a further investigation into the case is being carried out in Hefei.

The case is similar to that of Zhai Zhenfeng, a former director of the housing administrative bureau in a district of Zhengzhou, capital of Henan province.

Zhai was arrested on Monday after he and his family were found to own 31 houses and his wife to have taken advantage of Zhai's position to sell affordable houses for personal gain.

China's affordable housing project was subsidized by the government and designed for low-income groups.

However, it seems that those groups are not benefiting as they should, with Zhai's case apparently just the tip of an iceberg. Statistics from the housing management department of Zhengzhou show that from 2005 to 2009, only one third of the affordable houses were offered to citizens in need and the rest were suspected to be taken by people by illegal means.

Industry insiders say some government departments or officials will keep the affordable houses for themselves during the approval process, and developers also often retain a certain amount of houses for their own interests.

While there exist a number of supervision measures in place from the approval process to construction and distribution of affordable and resettlement houses, manipulation of power has sometimes obstructed their implementation.

To prevent corruption in this field, experts say, officials should strengthen self-discipline and at the same time government information should be more transparent to bolster public monitoring.

 

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