Officer rotation fails to stem entrenched corruption at Shenzhen customs station

Job rotation among frontline officers-in-charge failed to stamp out mass corruption among customs officials at Shenzhen's Huanggang border control point, state media reported on Sunday, as further details of a trial last week came to light.

Eight officers, all from the same unit overseeing cross-border couriers, stood trial on Thursday in a Futian district court for taking hundreds of thousands of yuan in bribes.

Xinhua reported yesterday that Li Guoqiang, head of Division Six of the customs' logistics surveillance branch, and his seven colleagues were each accused of taking bribes ranging from 78,000 yuan (HK$98,000) to 1.25 million yuan from 2011 to 2014.

It's alleged the officers allowed smugglers' trucks to pass from Hong Kong to Shenzhen.

Earlier reports revealed that Li and his officers used an elaborate scheme to spread the bribes among themselves so they could clear several gate-keeping steps before releasing the smugglers' trucks.

In his defence, Li told the court that he did not invent the "rules". He had asked other divisions in the customs bureau about how to deal with the bribes, and Division Six simply "copied" the practice of other divisions.