5,600 punished for fiscal violations in China: top auditor

BEIJING - Chinese authorities have punished some 5,600 government officials for involvement in fiscal violations, the country's top auditor said Tuesday.

Liu Jiayi, head of the National Audit Office (NAO), made the announcement while briefing lawmakers on a work report about correcting problems found in an audit of the central government's 2014 budget and fiscal revenues and expenditures. Liu said the amount of money brought in during the correction had reached up to 580 billion yuan (90 billion U.S. dollars) by the end of October.

Close to 6,000 items in the government rules and regulations were formulated and revised in the process, the top auditor said.

It is the first time Chinese legislators have heard this type of report at the National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee's bimonthly session.

In previous years, the reports were only submitted to lawmakers in paper form. The change this year could signal the government's resolve to curb widespread malpractice.

NAO said in a June report that the majority of fiscal violations took place in sectors that involve public funds, state assets and state-owned resources, such as land and mining.

In particular, auditors found that over 780 billion yuan originally earmarked for land transfers was misappropriated by crooked officials to fill administrative expense gaps, lent to others or used to construct new office buildings and venues.

Violations were also detected in transactions and approval of mining rights and in the use of key national special funds. An audit involving 2,448 mining rights suggested malpractice in about one-third of cases, while separate probes revealed that close to 10 billion yuan in urban security housing funds and some 1.7 billion in lottery funds was misappropriated and siphoned off by officials.

Liu said Tuesday that some 568 billion yuan had been saved as auditors sought to rectify malpractices in land management from January to October, in addition to some 79 billion in the lottery sector.

More than 11 million yuan was also recovered from illicit overseas travel, vehicles and receptions, the so-called "three public consumptions," he added.

"Overall, relevant government departments, institutions and local governments have rectified problems found in the audit earnestly and in a timely manner and are working to improve relevant regulations," Liu said.