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1st LD-Writethru: Poverty relief funds totaling 870 mln yuan idle, wasted

Xinhua, June 29, 2016 Adjust font size:

By the end of March this year, 870 million yuan (130.9 million U.S. dollars) of poverty alleviation funding had been idle for more than one year or wasted, the country's top auditor said Wednesday.

Auditors have examined the use of poverty relief funds in 40 counties in 17 provinces, involving 5 billion yuan and 3,046 projects, Liu Jiayi, head of the National Audit Office, said while briefing lawmakers on the audit of the central government's 2015 budget.

Of the audited money, 843 million yuan, or 17 percent, has been left unused for more than one year, including some idle for as long as 15 years, according to Liu.

Liu submitted an audit report to the National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee at a plenary meeting of its ongoing bi-monthly session, which was attended by chairman Zhang Dejiang.

Around 27 million yuan has been wasted due to 29 abandoned or unsatisfactory poverty relief projects, according to the report.

In addition, 151 million yuan had been fraudulently obtained, for instance through fabricated contracts, or used for purposes other than helping the poor, the report said.

In some cases, governments failed to allocate money to poor families that needed it most, the report showed.

Last year saw improvements in the living conditions of rural and urban residents nationwide, because governments of various levels increased subsidies for affordable houses in urban areas and the renovation of substandard rural houses, the report said.

However, auditors uncovered that by the end of last year, 47.9 billion yuan of earmarked fund had been idle for more than one year in 748 cities and counties, 190,000 government-subsidized houses were left uninhabited due to delayed construction of supporting infrastructure, and 6,544 houses were illegally sold or rented.

More than 14 million yuan worth of government subsidies for the renovation of substandard rural houses was deceitfully taken by 41 local-level organizations and some village and township cadres, the report showed.

Moreover, a large amount of housing subsidies have been given to ineligible households, it said.

After the audit, action has been taken to retrieve the money and improperly assigned houses. A total of 352 people have been punished, Liu said. Endi