Local audit departments found that huge sums of money have been
misappropriated as auditors wrapped up their annual audits of the
governmental budgets on Thursday.
Audit departments in southwest China's Sichuan Province found that all audited
departments either misused funds or failed to follow regulations,
reported the China Business News.
The report covers 14 provincial departments, nine universities
and part of the fine management of local courts and traffic police
departments. The report gives the names of violators and their
transgressions.
Compared with last year, the sum of "problematic money" was
substantially reduced, according to the report.
However, all the audited departments were found to have
violations such as the misappropriation of special funds, default
of money that should be given to the provincial treasury or even
embezzlement.
The Sichuan Industry and Commerce Administration did not hand in
the more than 20 million yuan (US$2.5 million) in taxes it
collected last year, but instead, used the money to subsidize
grassroots industry and commerce bureaux.
The report also showed that the province's nine universities
failed to hand in as much as 619.25 million yuan (US$77 million) to
the provincial treasury and held back more than 60 million yuan
(US$7.5 million).
Meanwhile, the audit department has revealed the embezzlements
of some local taxation bureaux.
Four members of a direct subsidiary of the Bazhong Taxation
Bureau, including Chen Jian, the financial section chief of the
subsidiary, were arrested for embezzling huge sums of tax money,
according to Huang Jinsheng, director of the provincial audit
department.
Chen Jian is the only person named in the report. "We
encountered many obstacles and overcame a lot of difficulties in
finding clues in Chen's case; some of the plotting in this case is
appalling," Huang was quoted by the Chengdu Economic Daily
as saying, adding that individual economic crime is the most
challenging work for auditors.
Nationwide, almost all the audit organs of each province
revealed some violations.
"The phenomenon of misappropriation remains outstanding," said
Yang Xiaochao, director of the Beijing Audit Bureau.
The city's 19 departments misappropriated a total of 174 million
yuan (US$21.75 million) last year, according to Yang.
When the local audit department in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province launched a campaign to
audit 600 units and projects, they found 1.06 billion yuan
(US$132.5 million) of "problematic money." The audit of 100
hospitals in the province unearthed a total of 725 million yuan
(US$90 million) in misused funds.
By the end of June, 1.27 billion yuan (US$158 million) of
"problematic money" were found in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.
Last month, in his annual audit report to National People's
Congress (NPC) Standing Committee members, Li Jinhua,
Auditor-General of the National Audit Office (NAO), revealed that
48 central government departments misappropriated 5.51 billion yuan
(US$ 668 million) from budget allocations last year.
(China Daily July 29, 2006)