STATE-OWNED oil giant Sinopec is investigating allegations that one of its female officials accepted escort services as a bribe from a supplier who won a lucrative contract for a project worth 18 billion yuan (US$2.88 billion) in Wuhan.

    An official surnamed Zhang at China Petroleum & Chemical, known as Sinopec, called the accusations false and said she had filed a complaint with police, China News Service reported Thursday.

    The allegations first surfaced on one of China’s popular online forums about a week ago, but their origins are unclear. The story was quickly picked up by major newspapers. Sinopec announced the launching of its investigation Wednesday.

    The scandal involves U.S.-listed technology company Agilent Technologies, which had been accused of bribing Zhang with a sex service provided by male sex workers in a high-end Beijing club, said media reports. Some of the escorts were reported to be African.

    Agilent had secretly videotaped Zhang, reports said. It later threatened her with the tape when the company competed for a big contract to sell machines to Sinopec for an 18-billion-yuan plant to produce petrochemical ethylene in Wuhan.

    Zhang then worked with Agilent and helped it win the contract, reports said.

    Possibly to avoid unwanted attention, Agilent had lowered its initial offering price from US$2.6 million to US$2.3 million. This turned out to be the lowest price among all bidders.

    In addition to the machines, the contract required Agilent to supply software that costs US$800,000. But after securing the contract, they replaced it with low-quality software costing only US$100,000, according to reports. Agilent was thus able to make money despite the relatively low price Sinopec paid them.

    Zhang told reporters Thursday that the tender had been carried out strictly and lawfully.

    Some online accounts depict Zhang as a defiant boss and daughter of a high-ranking Beijing official. She has pledged to take the case to court.

    “Internet rumors have severely damaged my body and mind,” she said. “I will definitely pursue legal action against those vicious libels.”

    (SD-Agencies)