About 6.87 billion yuan (US$937 million) worth of public funds
was used by central government agencies without authorization
during the first 11 months of the year, a senior audit official
said yesterday.
"These abuses were uncovered after auditing 56 ministerial-level
departments and 434 of their affiliates," Li Jinhua,
auditor-general of the National Audit Office said at the national
audit conference held in Beijing.
A total 4.2 billion yuan (US$571 million) had been recovered by
the end of October, he claimed.
His office also helped to recover 7.16 billion yuan (US$975
million) that would either have been embezzled or withheld from a
variety of uses: subsidies to agriculture and nine-year compulsory
education in rural regions, disaster relief, social insurance,
pension funds and land sale revenues.
"The ministerial-level departments took immediate and effective
action to rectify the financial abuses following the order from the
State Council," the auditor-general said. "(We) should pay much
attention to rectification as well as auditing work."
Li also said a total amount of 27.1 billion yuan (US$3.98
billion) had been squandered nationwide through auditing.
This year's efficiency audit emphasis is focused on wrong
decisions, project construction and consumption of public coffers,
he said.
He also revealed at yesterday's audit conference that during the
first 11 month of 2007, the country's audit organs audited more
than 25,000 officials nationwide, among them 361 prefecture-level
officials.
It found 3.6 billion yuan (US$490 million) in financial abuses
and transferred 304 officials to prosecutors and Communist Party
disciplinary agencies.
Meanwhile, more than 90,000 companies and public institutions
were audited and 929 cases involving illegal use of funds were
handed over to prosecutors and Party disciplinary bodies.
(Xinhua News Agency December 27, 2007)