Departments of Chinese government have improved their use of budget funds in recent years, thanks to better regulations and management as well as self-discipline.

After auditing 40 central departments, government auditors concluded that the number of irregularities found in these departments is on the decrease while budget management is improving.

The report was presented on Monday at a national working conference on auditing by Li Jinhua, auditor-general of the National Audit Office (CNAO), on behalf of over 80,000 auditors in the country at all levels.

In the first 11 months of this year, central and local government auditors looked into some 91,000 government departments and institutions that receive budget funds, and discovered various kinds of irregularities involving more than 290 billion yuan (about US$36 billion).

Over 1,370 cases were transferred to judicial departments for criminal investigation, according to Li.

In the same period, the auditors checked 6,020 state companies to discover irregularities involving a total of 44.9 billion yuan (about US$5.5 billion).

Meanwhile, the auditors audited some 22,000 leading officials at different levels, and detected irregularities involving 35 billion yuan (about US$4.35 billion). A number of these officials were punished by law or by disciplinary sanction.

The auditor-general said that in 2006, the National Audit Office plans to step up auditing on the implementation of budgets, the use of special funds, the financial activities of branches of commercial banks, and will also continue to audit the financial responsibilities of leading officials at provincial and ministerial levels.

(Xinhua News Agency December 28, 2005)