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China audit says billions misused

China's state auditors have uncovered 124.9 billion yuan (US$15.6 billion) in misappropriated state funds during the first eight months of the year, state press reported yesterday.

State auditors have handed over the names of 38 leaders and 92 other officials to judicial authorities for prosecution in the latest "audit storm" against corruption, the 21st Century Business Herald reported.

The "audit storm" has become one of the latest tools of the central government to crack down on official corruption.

So far, 54,000 government units have been audited this year, the newspaper said.

Last year, auditors uncovered a total of 290 billion yuan in illegal or unaccounted for spending by government offices and state-run enterprises, the National Audit Office reported earlier.

"The present number does not mean that misappropriated funds discovered by the audit is decreasing," the newspaper quoted an audit official as saying when comparing last year's figure with this year's first eight months.

The figure could increase rapidly as more audits are carried out over the last four months of the year, he said.

Most of the misappropriated funds, or nearly 100 billion yuan, were discovered in state-run enterprises, the newspaper said.

A total of 14,000 party and government cadres were also fingered for "bearing direct responsibility" for the misappropriation of 6 billion yuan, it said.

The annual audit reports have been open to public scrutiny since only 2003.

But the Chinese media have criticized the lack of judicial powers by state auditors and a lack of transparency over how wrongdoings are dealt with and how offenders are punished.

For example, little information has been published over where a great part of the 290 billion yuan in misappropriated funds last year went, reports have said.
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