More than US$4 billion has been illegally spent by government
officials in south China's Guangdong
Province and another US$7.54 billion lost due to poor
management, according to a report released on Saturday by the
provincial audit department.
"The illegal behavior included embezzling public
money, spending public funds on lavish dinners and gifts, and
shifting public funds to personal accounts," said the department's
director, Zeng Shouxi.
Over 400 officials were reported to be involved one
way or another in the activities, the details of which came to
light after a five-year investigation between 2000 and 2004 that
was conducted by the audit department and involved the provincial
bureaus of supervision and finance and the provincial
government.
The accounts of 10,772 officials were audited in
that period and 35.3 billion yuan (US$4.35 billion) was found to
have been illegally used.
Those investigated also caused financial losses of
61.2 billion yuan (US$7.54 billion) during the five years because
of improper management.
After the investigation, 71
government?officials were demoted, 36 dismissed, 105
disciplined, and 231 sent to justice departments for further
investigation, according to the report, while 747 were
promoted.
Zeng said those rewarded were officials who
reported corrupt colleagues and worked with investigators, but
refused to reveal their names or those punished.
"In collaboration with the provincial government,
we will crack down on malpractice by government officials in the
future," he said.
According to provincial government and audit
department plans, from next year all officials below the rank of
county magistrate must be audited when due to leave their
posts.
From 2007, the department will audit the accounts
of chief government officials at least once during their terms of
office.
The leaders of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and
state-holding SOEs must also be audited before a leader leaves, and
accounts of key projects related to infrastructure and financial
development will be supervised by the government, according to the
plans.
(China Daily October 10, 2005)