China's top auditing body has released a list of 42 central
government departments found to have misappropriated state funds
last year.
Violators include key departments such as the National
Development and Reform Commission and the ministries of education,
health, culture, commerce, personnel, finance, agriculture, public
security, railways and civil affairs.
Also on the list are the administrations of customs, sports,
forestry, and tourism as well as several ministerial-level
institutions including the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chinese
Academy of Social Sciences, and National School of
Administration.
An announcement posted on the website of the National Audit
Office (NAO) late on Monday named the violators and the details of
their irregular implementation of the 2005 central budget.
But the list apparently fell short of the 48 central government
departments cited by Auditor-General Li Jinhua in his annual report
to the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC) on June 27.
Li told lawmakers that the 48 departments and 274 affiliated
units had misused 5.51 billion yuan (US$688 million) of the central
budget in 2005, but did not name them.
The ministries of foreign affairs, state security, national
defense and supervision were not included in the list.
The NAO has pledged to open all audit and investigation reports
to the public except for those concerning state secrets.
Xinhua News Agency reported yesterday that 13 departments named
in the audit announcement had moved to correct their wrongdoings
and vowed to tighten control over budgets.
Monday's announcement, however, has again turned the spotlight
on the rampant misuse of state funds due to a lack of tight
auditing standards.
The transgressions range from reporting non-existent workers or
fabricated projects, and embezzling special funds to construct
office buildings, to hiding revenues and fabricating expenses.
Auditors also found instances of unauthorized spending of cash
surpluses, bogus expense claims for receiving foreign guests,
unreported sales of assets, and the embezzlement of special and
scientific research funds.
Analysts said the NAO's move to make public the details will
ease concerns that it might be taking a less aggressive approach to
the issue.?
Since 2003, when the NAO published the full text of its annual
audit report for the first time in China's history, Li has won
nationwide applause and fame.
Dubbed the "iron-faced auditor," Li triggers an "audit storm" each year with his frank and
straightforward account of problems in his annual audit report to
the NPC, China's top legislature. As a result, a large number of
government departments have been exposed for misappropriating
funds.
In response to media reports, one of Li's colleagues reportedly
argued that Li had chosen to focus on the bigger picture in his
annual report and left details of specific cases to the daily
reporting.
Some of the major cases of misappropriation and irregularities
revealed in Monday's audit announcement are:
The People's Bank of China, the central bank, flouted rules and
spent 1.01 billion yuan (US$126 million) on purchasing or building
fixed assets. It also misused 126 million yuan (US$15.75 million)
of operation expenses to pay employee salaries.
A State Forestry Administration department in charge of managing
World Bank loans misused 567 million yuan (US$70 million) of funds
intended for debt repayment to the World Bank, and spent 1.2
million yuan (US$150,000) to facilitate personal investments by
staff.
The Beijing Railway Bureau misused 164 million yuan (US$20.5
million) to build a luxury villa hotel in Beijing's rural
Shijingshan District.
The Sports Fund Management Center, affiliated to the General
Administration of Sports, failed to record 138 million yuan
(US$17.25 million) of income from the sale of shares in one of its
limited liability companies.
In 2002, staff at the center embezzled 27.87 million yuan
(US$3.48 million) from the public welfare lottery fund to invest in
securities. The money had not been recovered as of end-2005.
Staff at the Welfare Lottery Center, affiliated to the Ministry
of Civil Affairs, in 1996 embezzled 50 million yuan (US$6.25
million) to open a fixed-deposit account and collected interest.
The company, which is under liquidation, has not returned the
principal sum.
The Ministry of Civil Affairs failed to report 749 million yuan
(US$93.6 million) in its public accounts.
The Beijing Institute of Technology, affiliated to the
Commission of Science, Technology and Industry for National
Defense, misused 24.11 million yuan (US$3 million) of scientific
research funds to subsidize the purchase of apartments by its
employees.
(China Daily September 13, 2006)