A PUBLIC institution which responded to accusations of having an expensive payroll by saying it was only a draft has come under renewed criticism after further details of its expenditure were exposed on the Internet, Chinese-language media reported over the weekend.
The payroll of the Shenzhen Residential Leasing Management and Services Center, which was administered by the city s housing and construction bureau, showed that the highest individual annual salary was 688,706 yuan (US$108,350). Nobody believes it (the payroll) is a draft, said a netizen, identified only as Chutian, who first posted it on a popular online forum. It is absolutely a lie.
An official at the center said Thursday in response that the payroll was indeed compiled by the center as a draft and had already been vetoed by the center s director.
Angered by the response, Chutian posted further details of the center s expenditure on the Internet, which showed that the center s total expenditure in the first three quarters this year, including subsidies for food, clothing and medication, was more than 36 million yuan.
It also showed that the average monthly salary of the center s staff was 23,469 yuan per person. The average monthly salary in Shenzhen is no more than 4,000 yuan. Chutian said the payroll list was said to be from internal files at the center.
The Beijing Times said the salary budget for the center in 2011 showed the average monthly income of the center s 68 staff was 23,850 yuan, but the budget for temporary employees was only 3,102 yuan per month per person, only one eighth of staff salaries.
The payroll post attracted wide attention nationwide with a number of popular news portals of other cities covering it.
The center was a public institution responsible for leasing, maintaining and managing affordable housing, low-cost housing and government housing.
Although many employees told the newspaper that they had not yet heard of the list on the Internet, the newspaper found that several names on the list were the same names appearing on the center s official Web site.
The housing and construction bureau said it was investigating. (SD News)
