China will audit the financial statements of six leading state-owned enterprises and financial records of a number of provincial governors and ministers, this year.

It is a substantial effort to increase financial accountability in the country which is also seeing the maturation of its audit systems.

"We'll standardize the auditing procedures of officials at the ministerial-level," said Linghu An, the deputy auditor general of the National Audit Office Wednesday.

The six major enterprises are among 51 major enterprises under the supervision of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission. The presidents of the 51 major state-owned enterprises are directly appointed by the State Council.

The country is continuing to develop an evaluation mechanism for officials of both government and state owned enterprises, said Ling.

"We will draft regulations on auditing fiscal accountability and hope to have them submitted to the State Council, or the central government, by the end of 2006," Ling said.

Chinese auditors uncovered more than 35 billion yuan (US$4.37 billion) in illegal use of funds during a nationwide audit of 22,000 Party and government officials in the first 11 months of 2005, according to the NAO's preliminary report.

Meanwhile, an audit of 6,020 enterprises found that 44.9 billion yuan (US$5.6 billion) has been misspent or misrepresented on financial records, the NAO statistics showed.

(Xinhua News Agency February 24, 2006)