Official expenses on decline in past years as supervision intensifies
More than 870 million yuan ($130.9 million) of China's poverty alleviation fund had been either left idle for more than a year or wasted, the country's top auditor said Wednesday, which experts attributed to the authorities' increasing supervision of the use of State funds and a crackdown on corruption.
Auditors examined the use of poverty relief funds in 40 counties in 17 provinces, involving 5 billion yuan and 3,046 projects, Liu Jiayi, head of the National Audit Office (NAO), said while briefing lawmakers on the audit of the central government's 2015 budget, the Xinhua News Agency reported on Wednesday.
Of the audited money, 843 million yuan, or 17 percent, was left unused for more than a year, including some left untouched for 15 years, according to Liu. Around 27 million yuan was wasted on 29 abandoned or unsatisfactory poverty relief projects, according to an audit report that Liu submitted to an ongoing bi-monthly session of the National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee for deliberation.
The previous problem of the misuse of poverty relief funds has turned to wasting the budget or leaving it idle, because of stricter supervision and punishment, Ren Jianming an anti-corruption expert at Beihang University in Beijing told the Global Times on Wednesday.
"Facing pressure from the ongoing anti-corruption campaign, some local governments or departments dare not put the funds into poverty relief projects because they fear being caught," Ren added.
The report also said 151 million yuan had been fraudulently obtained, for instance, through falsified contracts, or used for purposes other than helping the poor.
In some cases, governments failed to provide money to poor families in most need of it, the report showed.
"Deliberately misusing the budget is corruption, a trade between money and power," Zhang Xixian, a professor at the Party School of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, told the Global Times, adding that in many cases, the more undeveloped a region is, the more corruption exists, because the execution and supervision system is poorly regulated.
"More targeted identification of poor households and poverty relief under open and democrat supervision are also necessary to avoid the problems found in the audit," Zhang said.
'Three public consumptions'
The audit report said that the management of the "three public consumptions" and conference expenses in some departments is poorly regulated.
The budgets and expenditure of all government bodies at or above the county level for receptions, vehicles and overseas trips, are known as "the three public consumptions." China's State Council has required provincial-level governments to disclose information on "the three public consumptions" since 2013.
The audit report said the General Administration of Customs and the Ministry of Commerce and Ministry of Education had abused the three public consumptions, according to the NAO's official website.
"Abusing, wasting and embezzling public funds usually involves big amounts of money, and would lead to public outcry," Zhang noted.
According to the audit report last year, the three public consumptions have been declining in the past years.
"The State Council is managing the reduction in the public consumptions, and require that consumptions are itemized, which makes controlling and supervising the use of money easier and clearer," Ren said.
Other findings
The auditors also revealed inefficient use of scientific research budgets because of a poor management system.
Meanwhile, 10 central enterprises investigated in the audit, including Sinopec and China Southern Airlines, were found to have falsified their business performance.
Ren said the reports should be more detailed and transparent to better supervise the government agencies.
