China's private sector joins the nation's battle against corruption
Big companies including Dalian Wanda, Alibaba, Baidu and Tencent step up their internal audits, removing corrupt staff from their posts
Even as government graft-busters battle corruption within state-owned enterprises, some private companies have voluntarily joined the national crackdown, with many stepping up their internal audits.
One such firm, property conglomerate Dalian Wanda, last Friday held an anti-graft education assembly in Beijing, during which it announced that 18 staff members, including four high-level executives, had been removed from their posts for corruption and violations of company rules.
Among the 18, two cases had been transferred to judicial organs for criminal investigations, reported.
Wanda's corruption problem had been particularly pronounced in its property management sector and its shopping mall leasing departments, as employees there held great sway over arrangements for various merchants, the report said.
During the assembly, group president Ding Benxi relayed chairman Wang Jianlin's message that Wanda took a zero-tolerance approach towards corruption and would fine-tune its system for more effective ways to deter graft. Wang also vowed to make its auditing system more stringent, the report said.
"[Wang] chose to directly manage the auditing department," the report quoted a source close to the company as saying.
Ding urged Wanda employees to give their "unconditional support" to all audits, according to a statement on the company's website.
"To such a big company, auditing is especially important," said Ge Dingkun, a professor of strategy and entrepreneurship at the China Europe International Business School in Shanghai. "Some people are vulnerable … as there is no in-house disciplinary watchdog."
Similar internal graft probes have been carried out across many of the country's internet firms since the start of the year.
A source at a Beijing-based leading video website said its CEO had forwarded to management all news about corruption uncovered in private companies to raise awareness of the issue.
In May, Baidu sent an internal email revealing that seven of its employees had allegedly taken bribes and embezzled funds. This month, Tencent announced it had uncovered corruption cases in its video department and the former general manager of its video team, Liu Chunning, was detained in a graft investigation.
Telecommunications giant Huawei and carmaker Great Wall Motors also announced the results of their anti-graft efforts.
"If the big-business environment can change, companies will be willing to participate in the anti-corruption campaign as well," anti-graft expert Zhuang Deshui said.
Ge said: "In the short term, the campaign in the private sector may affect company growth. But in the long term, it's a good thing for them, just like the campaign at the state level."
