Yushu Earthquake Donations Well-supervised

Ten billion yuan (about US$1.5 billion) in donations to a quake-hit area in northwest China's Qinghai Province has been strictly managed and supervised to prevent embezzlement, local authorities said.

On April 14, 2010, a deadly earthquake struck Yushu County, located in the province's Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture. The region has received more than 10 billion yuan in donations since then, none of which has been embezzled or used illegally, according to Zhang Guangrong, the province's vice governor.

"Agreements have been signed between the prefecture's government, the Red Cross, the provincial department of civil affairs and the Charity Federation in order to supervise the management of the donations. A management center for the donations has also been jointly established by the four bodies," said Cheng Lihua, director of the provincial department of finance.

Officials from the finance department, as well as the province's auditing office, have been transferred to the donation management center to supervise the Red Cross's work, Cheng said.

The funds were previously managed by the provincial department of civil affairs, the Qinghai Red Cross and the Qinghai Charity Federation, said Zhang Wenlin, director of the provincial supervision department.

More than 40 donor representatives now take part in the planning, auditing and supervision of the donation center, Zhang Wenlin said.

Zhang Guangrong added that a management system has been established to control the way in which the funds are distributed. Under the system, about 7.6 billion yuan has been directed towards 685 post-quake reconstruction projects, while the rest of the money is being used to improve housing and public facilities in the county, Zhang Guangrong said.

Donor representatives from Baidu Inc., China's largest search engine, said that they were satisfied with the ways in which their donations were used after supervising the construction of two new primary schools in Yushu County.