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dam-l Fwd: AP: Auditors uncover tide of misconduct
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DATE: Mon, 20 Dec 1999 10:02:21
From: owner-irn-three-gorges@netvista.net
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Friday, December 17, 1999
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Auditors uncover tide of misconduct
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Company funds spent on securities speculation, flood control money
squandered on building a new hotel, billions stolen to set up a company
and bogus stock listings are among the misdeeds uncovered by government
auditors this year.
Audits uncovered cases of fraud, official misconduct and waste at hundreds
of banks, government offices and state-owned companies in all corners of
the mainland.
Auditor-General Li Jinhua did not give a total figure yesterday for the
amount of misused and stolen funds discovered this year, but he did
provide details on the extent of the problem.
"These problems are caused mainly by a lack of experience in running the
market economy and some loopholes in the legal system and also some
individuals committing corruption," Mr Li said.
At least 10 per cent of the 17,000 senior officials and state company
managers audited had been punished or demoted for misconduct, he said.
One of the most blatant cases the auditors found involved former Ministry
of Finance officials who had misappropriated 70 billion yuan (HK$65.7
billion) to set up the Science and Technology Investment Corporation.
In another, a government department built an office block, the Jinlong
Tower, in Shanghai's Pudong district. That and many other buildings
constructed with stolen or misused funds will be auctioned off by the
State Council.
Misspending of the 32.25 billion yuan budgeted for flood control and
irrigation works cost the mainland at least 3.02 billion yuan. A further
16 per cent of the total lay idle because local governments were not
adequately prepared to spend the money, said Zhai Xigui, a vice-minister
in the National Audit Office.
Officials in charge of water control along the Yangtze River used nine
million yuan to build a hotel, Mr Zhai said.
In many cases, local officials used water works budgets to pay their own
salaries, distribute bonuses and speculate in the stock market.
Audits of two major state-owned banks, the Industrial and Commercial Bank
of China and the China Construction Bank, found 170 cases of corruption
involving 220 people. Branch offices had overstated assets and equities
worth 200 billion yuan and kept 200 billion yuan in off-the-record assets.
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Published in the South China Morning Post. Copyright ) 1999. All rights
reserved.
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