The Ministry of Supervision and the Central Discipline Inspection Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) have jointly sent another three teams to quake zones to monitor fund usage on Wednesday.

The fresh round of supervision focuses on three aspects: the use of substantive fund and the stock of quake relief materials; management of overseas donations, and fund transferring process.

The three teams will shoulder the supervision in quake-hit Sichuan, Shaanxi and Gansu provinces respectively.

The first team was sent to Sichuan on May 31 by the CPC discipline watchdog to ensure the proper use of relief funds and materials for the areas affected by the May 12 earthquake, which killed nearly 70,000.

The government disaster relief fund had topped 59.06 billion yuan (about US$8.44 billion), including 53.70 billion yuan from the central budget and 5.36 billion yuan from the local budget.

According to the Ministry of Civil Affairs, domestic and foreign donations had reached close to 57.32 billion yuan in cash and goods by Monday noon, of which 20.9 billion yuan had been forwarded to the quake-hit areas.

(Xinhua News Agency July 17, 2008)