The National Audit Office annual report shows that large sums of money had been misused or embezzled over the past year. As part of the government’s fight against widespread misuse of public funds, the audit had been expanded to cover 54 agencies.
The report did not give a summary of the amounts wrongly used, nor how many officials were found to be involved, as previous reports had done.
Also for the first time, the office scrutinized its own books and those of the Party. It previously covered only Central Government agencies and giant State-owned enterprises.
The audit also covered the foreign affairs and public security ministries, major economic agencies such as the ministries of finance and commerce, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) — which is the top planning agency — and the People’s Bank of China.
The 96-page report specified wrongdoing by each of the 54 agencies, with the figure involved under each account.
Before pointing the finger it is worth considering that such an audit in every country in the world would find such wrongdoing. The difference woul be scale, some greater some smaller.
But it is difficult to forgive the Ministry of Foreign Affairs which failed to turn in to the State coffers RMB132 million (US$19.4 million) in visa and passport handling fees. It also failed to enter into its books luxury property, such as villas, which were bought with public funds years ago.
And the Chinese Academy of Sciences was found to have embezzled more than RMB1 million for stock market speculation.
It is a sad reflection on humanity that this is not just a China problem. It is a world problem.
Shenzhen Daily said that an earlier report submitted to the National People’s Congress in June revealed that the audit office had recovered RMB26.77 billion in public money that was embezzled last year.
And the Auditor General Liu Jiayi said that about 30 people involved in 116 cases had been arrested and sentenced and another 117 had been punished. Roughly the same figures as Australia. Which has, in comparison, a minuscule population.