Power in Asia
June 6, 2006
A top executive with the largest Three Gorges dam subcontractor was fired in January for his decision to buy second-hand, dilapidated construction machinery to build the world’s largest hydrodam, reports Probe International, the Toronto-based environmental organisation. Dai Lansheng, the former general manager of the Three Gorges Industrial Co, is also under investigation for graft and embezzlement of state funds, according to a February 29th article in the Chinese language Hong Kong Commercial Daily. With offices in Beijing, Shanghai, Wuhan, and Shengzhen, the Three Gorges Industrial Co is the largest subsidiary of the Gezhouba Corp, which is responsible for over 60%of the Three Gorges dam’s construction. At a meeting to announce Dai’s dismissal, Sun Yucai, the newly-appointed head of the Gezhouba Corporation said, ‘Dai has left us with many law suits and huge debts." The second-hand machinery scandal dates back to 1994 when construction of the Three Gorges dam began. Dai imported hundreds of used trucks, bulldozers, excavators, and loading vehicles, some of them over 20 years old, to be used for excavating the massive dam site. According to Nie Hongliang, a retired senior engineer with the Gezhouba Corp, the old machinery should have been scrapped because it didn’t meet international construction standards.