Lack of Controls = certain death = in this for consumers and corporate share price

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT) said its head of China operations and a top deputy resigned, as the company grapples with a pork-labeling investigation that shuttered 13 stores and led to the detention of at least 27 people.



Ed Chan’s resignation was for personal reasons and not connected to the pork-labeling probe in the southwestern city of Chongqing, Anthony Rose, a Hong Kong-based spokesman, said by phone today. Clara Wong, Wal-Mart China’s senior vice president for people, also resigned.

The world’s largest retailer’s 15-year expansion in China is under threat from the probe over the labeling of ordinary pork as organic in Chongqing, where Wal-Mart has faced 21 cases of false advertising and sales of expired or uninspected food since 2006. China has increased scrutiny of food retailers after cases including the sale of melamine- tainted milk and reprocessed cooking oil.

Scott Price, chief executive of its Asian operations, will replace Chan on an interim basis, the company said in an e- mailed statement today. Chan had held the post for almost five years. Rose would not comment on Wong’s reasons for stepping down.