The annual report of the National Audit Office reveals widespread irregularities in ministries and central institutions like the Bank of China and the agency Xinhua, where tens of billions of Yuan (several billion euros) are misappropriated.

Beijing (AsiaNews / Agencies) - Corruption is widespread in China at all levels, even in the circles of government and major public institutions. This is the finding from the report for 2008 released yesterday by the National Audit Office for disciplinary inquiries.

The report acknowledges that despite the continuing and growing commitment of the Audit Office, only partial success against widespread corruption and appropriation of public funds was achieved, which have also affected the 4 thousand billion Yuan government funding to support business. The phenomenon is even more alarming when one considers that Beijing had clearly stated that the proper use of these funds would be controlled with special concern because of fear of misappropriation.

The report does not give the overall figure of officials responsible for these misdeeds or the sum stolen or misused, but the partial data is nevertheless alarming and leads experts to believe that the phenomenon is not decreasing. Among other things, the Ministry for Communications has been proven to have misappropriated public funds to the sum of 11.8 billion Yuan (about 1.2 billion euros), while the Ministry for Foreign Affairs has not paid the state 132 million Yuan in income taxes for visas and passports. The Ministry for Education siphoned 3 million originally allocated to specific projects.

103 million in funds were misused or not used according to agreed financial plans by the Ministry for Finance.

The Chinese Academy of Sciences spent more than one million Yuan speculatiing on the stock exchange.

Officials state news agency Xinhua has spent 251 million without a valid permit. The State Office for Intellectual Property has used 174 million of taxes collected in unauthorized expenditure.

The Central Bank of China has pledged 617 million for expenses that are not justified and also the General Administration for Sports has spent 218 million on non-explained items.

Malpractice has also been registered in the National Audit Office itself, whose officials have spent funds amounting to 202 million in a different way than allocated.

According to analysts, the situation is even worse than last June when Liu Jiayi, head of investigations, told the National People’s Congress in 2008 22.7 billion misappropriated Yuan had been recovered, with 30 officials arrested and convicted and 117 others punished with various measures, especially disciplinary punishments.

Corruption is an endemic problem in the country, at all levels. For years leaders have declared zero tolerance and promised stricter inspections and punishments. But they still fail to eradicate the phenomenon in the central institutions of the state. Many activists argue that in order to stop corruption, the  party institutions need independent verification and democratic structures which deprive those who are siphoning of funds of the state of trust.

 

 

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