Rural residents throughout the country often get the short end of the stick due to unprofessional behavior among village officials who misuse public money with little oversight.

China Youth Daily, citing a new book, said Monday that the accused officials are often more concerned with their own economic gains than the people they represent.

The Supreme People's Procuratorate said 4,968 village officials engaged in illegal activities in 2008 while they were performing their official duties.

The book Hot Legal Issues in China's Villages was released by Beijing Zhicheng Legal Aid for Migrant Workers and Research Center following an investigation into 74 villages in 22 provinces.

The crimes included improper use of public assets, using village money without making a record of it and stealing from special funds set aside by higher authorities.

The book attributed the crimes to bad financial management and poor supervision over village officials.

"Every sum of money the officials collected or took out should have been recorded in the account books. The country has advocated for many years to make the work of village officials more transparent, especially their financial affairs so that the villagers know how their money is spent. However, these were poorly achieved," Tong Lihua, the director of the center, told the Global Times.