THE Shenzhen People’s Procuratorate initiated a public prosecution against Li Qing, former director of the Guangdong Provincial Environmental Protection Department, on Wednesday as Li was suspected of taking bribes, the Shenzhen Metropolis Daily reported Thursday.

    According to the indictment, Li had exchanged his power for money by taking advantage of his position as the head of Guangdong’s environmental protection department since 2003. He had offered help to his bribers by getting them government permissions for environment-related projects and providing convenience for their contracted projects and other business operations.

    The bribes received by Li included 22.54 million yuan (US$3.28 million), HK$520,000 (US$75,608) and US$90,000, according to the report.

    A waste disposal expert told finance.qq.com that the environmental protection industry in Guangdong was the most monopolistic in China.

    The unidentified expert said that Li barely let any non-local companies enter the environmental protection market in Guangdong when he was in office, and many environment-related projects, such as waste incineration projects, were contracted to local companies.

    (Zhang Yang)