An ongoing nationwide audit campaign has resulted in two
ministries being found to have misused and misappropriated
funds.
The ministries of railways and personnel were found to have
discrepancies against last year's budgets, according to a report
released by the National Audit Office (NAO) on its official website
yesterday.
The Ministry of Railways was discovered to have illegally held
1.72 billion yuan (US$208 million) in 2003. They had applied for
23.88 billion yuan (US$2.9 billion) for railway construction, which
was approved by the Ministry of Finance.
However, they reported using only 18.26 billion yuan (US$2.2
billion) to the National Development and Reform Commission for the
planned projects during the same period, 5.62 billion yuan (US$690
million) less than allocated.
They granted a total of 22.16 billion yuan (US$2.7) to
subordinate units, leaving a reserve of 1.72 billion yuan at the
end of the year.
Their final budget report added 308 million yuan for changes to
projects, whilst the rest of the detained funds were appropriated,
the NAO said.
Similarly, the Ministry of Personnel illegally used a budget
surplus from the previous year, worth 930,000 yuan (US$112,500), to
buy three automobiles in 2003, according to the NAO.
They did not list the purchases in their budget, nor did they
present a supplementary report before the end of last June, as
required.
The ministry was also found to have misused nearly 4.5 million
yuan (US$544,000) of surplus from infrastructure construction to
buy 16 apartments for employees, also not included in their annual
budget.
All the mentioned government organizations have been informed to
immediately rectify their problems.
(Xinhua News Agency November 19, 2004)