China sees more corruption in poverty relief fund use

China has vowed a harsh crackdown on duty crimes as a growing number of officials are found to have misused or embezzled poverty relief funds in recent years.

Chinese prosecutors investigated 2,295 officials who were in charge of the country's poverty alleviation in the past three years, with 579 in 2013, 783 in 2014, and 933 in 2015, said the Supreme People's Procuratorate (SPP) on Tuesday.

The number of corrupt officials involved in abuse of finances for poverty relief in the past three years accounted for 1.4 percent of the total duty crimes during the same period, the SPP added.

The sharp rise of corruption in poverty alleviation is due to a high number of poverty relief projects and funds involved, as well as loopholes in the supervision mechanism, said an unidentified official with the anti-corruption bureau under the SPP.

Investigations by the SPP show that grassroots officials at the levels of county, township and village are most prone to such duty crimes, including bribery, embezzlement, speculation, abuse of power and dereliction of duty.