A 14,000-SQUARE-METER area of land in Longgang District had been rented out for 0.1 yuan (US$0.02) per square meter for 50 years and villagers suspect the village head rented the land at the low price in exchange for personal gain.
Villagers learnt that the head of Xinbu Village in Longgang District, also the president of the Xinbu Branch Co. of Tongle Holdings Co. Ltd., had bought a 700,000-yuan car and received 30,000 yuan a month from the leaseholders. The village head, Ye Guanxin, had denied the accusation, yesterday s Southern Metropolis Daily reported.
Villagers had already reported the matter to the Tongle subdistrict government office, which oversees the village. Officials said they were already investigating whether Ye had taken bribes from the leaseholders.
According to the lease contract, the village land was rented to two men surnamed Hong and Yu from June 5, 2003, to June 5, 2053, for production. Hong and Yu had an option to renew the contract. The village could only make 840,000 yuan in total from the land lease and factories now occupied the land which the companies paid 8 yuan per square meter in rent.
We do not know why these two men were given such a cheap rent, one of the villagers said.
Villagers said that the village s financial affairs had never been made public after Ye became the village head and they knew nothing about the financial reports and land use.
Although the land price has gone up quickly in recent years, villagers incomes in Xinbu were the lowest of 10 villages in the Tongle Subdistrict. Each shareholder (villager) receives only about 10,000 yuan a year, but Ye has already invested in many industrial parks in Huizhou City, another unidentified villager said.
Ye said, however, all the village officials knew about the accounts and lease contracts.
Ye said he rented the land out in 2003 in the hope of increasing villagers incomes. At the time, there was no road, water or power here and nobody wanted this land even for free. It was a good deal to rent it out at 0.1 yuan per square meter. We wanted to develop our village and hoped to find someone to invest here quickly. It is common that only village officials know about these deals and transactions, he said.
He said he bought the 700,000-yuan Lexus car after the government paid him more than 3 million yuan for his land in 2003. He denied receiving 30,000 yuan a month. (Wang Yuanyuan)
