A lawyer, who has gone to court to force the Ministry of Railways (MOR) to reveal details of how it tendered its 330 million yuan ($53 million) booking website www.12306.com, says the ministry's statement of defense is pure subterfuge.
The ministry is asking the Beijing No.1 Intermediate People's Court to dismiss the complainant, saying it does not have a "responsibility," nor is it required to disclose specific details of how it tendered the contracts.
Beijing lawyer Dong Zhengwei, who suspects the tendering process was corrupt, told the Global Times the ministry is shirking its responsibility and its defense contradicts past practice.
"The statement is chicanery. They had already given me some details of the tendering process. How can they now argue it is not responsible for disclosing the information?" Dong told the Global Times Monday.
The MOR's lawyers told the court that the information Dong requested does not have to be released under regulations governing access to information.
The MOR also said it had already told Dong how he could access publicly available documents and information on various government and media websites in October 2012.
Dong said he followed the MOR's suggestion and the information he was able to glean was vague and did not provide the details he wanted.
The court accepted Dong's case against the MOR in December 2012, agreeing that Dong's right to access information may have been violated.
Earlier this month the court expanded the case to include the Information Technology Centre of the MOR, which runs the website, as a third party.
Dong said he's worried the court will too easily accept the MOR's argument.
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