Audit reveals the misuse of poverty relief funds

Poverty relief funds should be used under precise regulations as well as with severe accountability of embezzlement and corruption. Only in this way can poverty relief funds be effectively used.

Liu Jiayi, head of the National Audit Office (NAO) gavean audit report to the 21th session of the 12th National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee for deliberation on June 29. It said that in the allocation and management of poverty relief funds, 151 million yuan (about U.S. $22 million) had been fraudulently obtained or illegally used, and of this amount, 20 million yuan (about U.S. $3 million) was used for making up for operational fees and welfare; more than 870 million yuan (about U.S. $130 million) had been either left idle or wasted, including funds that were left untouched for 15 years.

An audit is known as a country's immune system for it is an indispensable segment of the giant system of country management for prevention, revelation and defense.This year, apart from the Audit report, the NAO also released audits of 43 central government departments, 10 state-owned enterprises, 5 financial institutions and 6 targeted projects and the report of the 39 already-settled cases of rule-violation and law-breaking. Reporting on only a single item is highly conducive to improving the details of the audit, strengthening the public supervision and promoting reform and accountability.

Among the numerous auditing items, the audit of poverty alleviation funds has attracted the most attention. Imagine how many poor people waiting for help could be back in desperation because of more than a billion yuan poverty alleviation funds that were fraudulently obtained and wasted. Even more shocking is the fact that some funds were left untouched for 15 years, during which many people were waiting eagerly for the funds and many of them lost their chance to be lifted out of poverty.

Successfully lifting 700 million people out of poverty can't be achieved without China's huge investment. Now, the country's goal is to help the remaining 55million poor people shake off poverty by 2020.To achieve that, the joint effort of various sectors of society is essential. However, the poverty alleviation efforts can be undermined by the misconduct and negligence of a number ofprovinces, institutions or individuals.

Severe problems have been revealed in this report on the distribution of poverty alleviation funds, such as misuse or inefficient distribution. Meanwhile, the long-time idling of several hundred million yuan also reflects the hardest point of poverty relief. It is worth noticing that in this audit, 40 counties of 17 provinces were randomly examined and among the 5 billion inspected funds, 843 million yuan was left unused for more than a year, representing17 percent of the total examined funds.

These funds are"life-saving money" for the poor and the "oxidizer"ofpoverty reduction. Therefore, they should be used under precise regulation as well as severe accountability of embezzlement and corruption, ensuring the money be put in place. However, in reality, there are cases where the money that is supposed to help the poor becomes "the meat of Monk Tang" and ends up in the pocket of the rich; there are also cases where the money is retained by the local government of each level and only a small amount of it can get to the poor.

To tackle these problems, not only should funds management be innovated to allocate, integrate and vitalize the money used for poverty relief, but also the audit system should be taken as a chance to eliminate the illegal use of the funds, ensuring the work of poverty alleviation can be conducted forcefully and fruitfully.