For the year 2006 China's National Audit Office (CNAO) has
discovered 7.1 billion yuan (US$816 million) in illegally used
social security funds, said Auditor-General Li Jinhua on Monday.
The 7.1 billion yuan was illegally borrowed, used or deposited.
The amount includes 2.3 billion yuan that was misused before
1999.
The CNAO audited the pension fund for enterprise employees, the
medical insurance fund for urban employees and the unemployment
insurance fund in 29 regions and five selected cities, said Li at
the annual conference of national auditing authorities.
Li said seven special funds, worth a total of more than 1
trillion yuan (US$128.2 billion), were audited in 2006. .
They're used for transfer payments to local governments, social
security, public housing, natural forest conservation, the
resettlement and control of geological disasters at the Three
Gorges areas and the control of sand storms in the Beijing-Tianjin
region.
Li said the management and use of the funds was generally good
despite the problems discovered.
The audit of the Three Gorges resettlement fund discovered 200
million yuan was illegally claimed or used and five cases of
misappropriation have been given to judicial institutions.
Li said this year the CNAO would strengthen auditing and
supervision of public service sectors as well as special funds
covering agriculture, education, medical, social security and
environmental protection.
(Xinhua News Agency January 9, 2007)