Mongolia's transport minister has been sacked after an official was beaten to death inside his ministry's building in an alleged job dispute, highlighting the graft and cut-throat culture in government employment.
The parliament voted on Thursday to dismiss Bat-Erdene Jadamba, the minister of road, transportation and development, in the wake of the August 9 killing.
Gombosuren Tumurkhuyag, the 38-year-old head of the internal audit department, was beaten to death inside the ministry.
A day later, the head of the state administration and management department, Makhbal Badam, was arrested in connection with the death.
Late last month, the victim's father told reporters his son had been under pressure to resign since February and was killed because people wanted his job.
The suspect was appointed by Bat-Erdene after the minister took office last year.
Also Read
Members of parliament said Thursday the killing was related to a job dispute.
"A life was brutally taken because of a government position. This case should never be considered just an incident," MP Oyundari Yunden said before the vote.
Another MP, Munkhbat Jamiyan, who was a classmate of the victim's wife, said Gombosuren had told him the pressures he faced six months before his death.
"Makhbal brought the deceased to his room six or seven times to intimidate him in order to appoint a different person to his position," Munkhbat said.
Government jobs are highly sought-after in Mongolia, a landlocked democracy wedged between China and Russia.
The Mongolian Anti-Corruption Authority is investigating a jobs-for-cash scandal after an audio recording surfaced last year in which two officials from the Mongolian People's Party, which controls parliament, discussed raising 60 billion tugriks (USD 25 million) to sell government positions.
Disclaimer: No Business Standard Journalist was involved in creation of this content