Nearly 31 billion yuan (US$4 billion) of social security funds
was misused last year, according to the National Audit Office
(NAO).
The massive misappropriation was uncovered by the NAO's
nationwide audit, which looked at social security funds as well as
housing provident funds from 45 cities and the implementation of
budgets by social security fund councils.
In total the audit covered more than 800 billion yuan (US$103
billion) of funding, of which 30.8 billion yuan almost 4 percent
was not properly accounted for, Yu Xiaoming, deputy chief auditor,
told the China Audit News yesterday.
Shanghai and the Tibet Autonomous Region were excluded from the
audit, the paper said without citing a reason.
Yu said that auditing social security expenditure remained an
important task.
This year local audit departments will launch their own audits
of social security funds.
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The NAO will also dispatch staff to audit money allotted for
disaster alleviation in 13 provinces. Special teams will also be
sent to audit the funeral and interment industry in three provinces
because the NAO received complaints that some government
departments overcharge mourning relatives.
An NAO report published last October said around 7.1 billion
yuan (US$916 million) of social security funds had been
misappropriated by 2005.
Speaking on the sidelines of the NPC session on Tuesday, Liu
Yongfu, vice-minister of labor and social security, said the
ministry is addressing the problem of misused funds.
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A rapid reporting system, which demands that labor and social
security bureaus at all levels report any misappropriation or fraud
involving the funds as soon as they are detected, has been
established, he said.
(China Daily March 16, 2007)