State Fund Violations Listed by Audit Body

State Fund Violations Listed by Audit Body China’s top audit body has finally released the list of 42 central government departments which misappropriated（盗用） State funds last year. Violators include powerful departments such as the National Reform and Development Commission（国家发改委）and the ministries of education, health, culture, agriculture, public security, railways and civil affairs.  Also on the list are administrations of customs, sports, forestry, and tourism as well as some ministerial-level institutions like the Chinese Academy of Sciences（中科院）, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences（中国社会科学院） and the National School of Administration（国家行政学院）. An announcement posted on the website of the National Audit Office (NAO) late on Monday named the violators and the details of their irregular implementation of the 2005 central budget. But the list apparently tells short of the 48 central government departments cited by Auditor-General Li Jinhua in his annual report to the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (NPC) （人民代表大会常务委员会）on June 27. Li told lawmakers that the 48 departments and 274 affiliated units had misused 5.51 billion yuan (US$688 million) of the central budget in 2005, but did not name them. But the names of sensitive departments such as the ministries of foreign affairs, State security, national defense and supervision do not figure in the latest announcement. The NAO had pledged to open all audit and investigation reports to the public except for those concerning State secret. The Xinhua News Agency reported yesterday that 1 departments named in the audit announcement had moved to correct their wrongdoings and vowed to tighten control over budgets. Monday’s announcement, however, had again focused the spotlight on rampant（猖獗的） misuse of State funds due to lack of tight auditing standards（审计准则）. The transgressions（违反） range from reporting non-existent workers of fabricated projects, embezzling（贪污） special funds for constructing office building to hiding revenues and fabricating（伪造） expenditures（花费）. Auditors（审计员） also found examples of unauthorized spending of cash surplus, bogus（伪造的） expense claims for receiving foreign guests, unreported sales of assets, and the embezzlement of special and scientific research funds. Analysts said the NAO’s move to make public the details will ease concerns that it may break away from its aggressive approach in uncovering inappropriate use of public funds.