According to our sources, Deng Feng and Luo Xiongcai, Director and Deputy Director of Guangdong Provincial Center for Disease Control (CDC), are now officially under investigation by the government disciplinary agency for corruption. Both are already removed from their posts, and the new director, Zhang Yonghui, took over their responsibilities on May 5.

Both officials under investigation have close personal ties with Luo Yaoxing, former director of the Immunization Institute under the Guangdong Provincial CDC, who were sentenced to life imprisonment on September 1, 2006 for receiving over CNY 10 million in briberies from major vaccine suppliers.

The investigation of Deng and Luo is believed to be related to Luo Yaoxing’s case. Our sources suggest that the briberies received by Luo is in fact much more than just CNY 10 million, and more officials are likely to be involved.

The amount of briberies involved in the new corruption scandal is not yet clear, but speculations are that it will be huge. One rumor suggests that Deng and Luo each received CNY 60 million in briberies, while another source discloses that the combined briberies of the two is CNY 60 million.

A vaccine salesperson revealed recently that the most effective means of winning the government vaccine purchase contracts is to “PR” the relevant top officials. 

The centralized purchasing system for preventative biological products was introduced in Guangdong province in 2000 in order to contain corruption in the purchase process of such products by medical institutions. Since then, the Guangdong Provincial CDC has been responsible for centralized purchase of preventative biological products for distribution to medical institutions. 

Centralized power for purchasing eventually bred more and bigger corruption as a few officials dominate the entire decision-making process for large volume annual purchases. 

The merits and potential problems of Guangdong’s system for centralized purchase of preventative biological products has been disputed ever since its inception in 2000, and the new corruption scandal has further exposed the flaws of the system for its over-concentration of decision-making power in a few top officials and its complete lack of transparency.