Smiling official probed for corruption

Shaanxi Province Work Safety Bureau chief, who evoked public anger for smiling in front of a charred bus where 36 people died in an accident last Sunday, is being probed for corruption, discipline authorities said yesterday.

News photos showed Yang Dacai was smiling by the burnt double-decker sleeper bus that crashed into a methanol tanker on a highway and killed 36 people in flames.

Outraged netizens searched his background and found he was wearing different luxury watches in file photos and suspected that he is a corruption government official.

Online fury and allegations alerted the province's discipline authorities who began to investigate corruption allegations against Yang.

Yang admitted on Weibo.com yesterday that he owned five expensive watches but used his "legal income" to buy these watches in a span of 10 years. "The most expensive one cost me 35,000 yuan (US$5,500) and the rest cost me 10,000 to 20,000 respectively," he said.

But his words didn't' convince Weibo users because they found he had worn four other luxury watches at meetings. The most expensive one was estimated at 280,000 yuan.

People said Yang couldn't afford these watches with his official salary, but Yang did not respond to this.