China government audit uncovers corruption

Financial audits of government finances in 2013 helped uncover 314 serious cases of "law and disciplinary violations" involving 1,100 people, a new report has showed.

These people's illicit acts were found by auditors of central and local revenue and spending last year, according to the National Audit Office's (NAC) 2013 audit report to the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress on Tuesday.

The guilty parties mainly work at government offices with administrative approval rights or departments controlling important state assets or resources, the NAC said in the report, but it did not reveal how these people were dealt with.

The report said that 112 are group cases, involving 760 people. Each of these cases involves a "nest" of people, centering on one or several officials who grasp public power or resources. In 31 cases, the principal suspects' family members also participated.

The report also said that suspects are committing crimes in a more covert way, such as asking for shares of a company in place of cash or laundering money under the disguise of doing public good.

While inspecting the China Investment Corporation and other two financial companies, the NAC found that they have illegally given loans or covered bad loans. These loans totaled about 18.3 billion yuan (2.9 bln US dollars).

The eight state-owned banks, including the ICBC, were found to have lent 375 billion yuan to companies barred from gaining such loans.

The NAC also uncovered 11 cases, worth 80 billion yuan, in which suspects had used the Internet to swindle money or raise funds illegally.