A senior official from the Guangdong provincial capital said corruption cases involving city's scientists were the consequences, in part, of a dysfunctional funding system.

Wang Dong, deputy mayor of Guangzhou, made the remarks against the backdrop of several scientists facing disciplinary measures.

Xie Xuelin, director of Guangzhou City Bureau of Science and Information, and other scientists have been asked to confess serious violations of Party discipline and State law.

Xie, suspected of taking bribes, has been dismissed from office for a further investigation by the city's top anti-graft body.

“Relevant departments should have to study how to distribute the city's scientific and research funding,” Wang told a news conference on Thursday morning.

“The government annually invests a large sum of money into research, but we need to introduce effective and concrete measures to prevent the funding from being misused and siphoned by a handful of corrupt officials,” he said.