News
China Communications Construction director hauled in over graft
A director at China Communications Construction Company, the parent of Colombo Port City developer China Harbour Engineering, has been hauled in over corruption suspicions in China. The executive, Wu Zhenfang, is also the former deputy general manager of the state-owned China National Offshore Oil Corporation, China’s anti-graft body has announced.
Xinhua reported that Mr. Wu is under investigation for “severe disciplinary violation’’, according to a statement by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, the Communist Party anti-corruption agency. CNOOC’s oil and gas sales last year amounted to US$35.5 billion, more than half the value of Sri Lanka’s annual economic output.
Hong Kong-listed China Communications Construction announced hours after trading in the stock exchange closed for the day on Thursday that Mr. Wu was “being investigated by relevant authorities’’. It did not elaborate. In a filing to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange at 8:14pm on Thursday, China Communications Construction said, Mr. Wu “resigned as an independent non-executive director’’ and “ceased to be chairman of the remuneration and appraisal committee, a member of the strategy committee and a member of the nomination committee’’.
He submitted his resignation, the company reported to the exchange. Mr. Wu is a petroleum engineer and had been a director for less than a year at China Communications Construction, having been appointed on April 22, 2014. China Communications Construction listed in Hong Kong less than nine years ago.