State auditors caught dozens of ministries and central government agencies embezzling or misusing nearly 1.5 billion yuan (US$219.58 million) in public funds, according to a new report on 2008 accounts.

For the first time the National Audit Office audited itself was found wanting.

The auditors found that 622 million yuan had been improperly collected in government fees, and 37 million yuan worth of payroll and other public accounts had been falsified.

There were also problems with misspent money on publicly funded conferences and overseas business trips in their 2008 budget fulfillment or financial revenue and expenditures, the office said on its Website.

The 100,000-word report was on the 2008 accounts of 54 government departments and some organizations directly under the Communist Party of China Central Committee, the first time Party accounts were checked by the auditors.

The report said the International Communication Office of CPC central committee hid about 540,000 yuan in revenue while its official training center suffered a loss of 210,000 yuan for a loan business.

The State Departments Work Committee of the CPC raised its budget of 6.73 million yuan without authorization and spent 2.7 million repairing its office building without public bidding, the report said.

The National Audit Office was one of the 54 departments checked, and the report said it improperly allocated 1.15 million yuan from its audit expenditures to help subsidiaries short of public funds.

The report said the Shanghai Maritime Safety Administration misused 14 million yuan to build an office complex.

(Shanghai Daily September 3, 2009)