Audit finds funds missing or wasted

A staggering 4 billion yuan ($593 million) was misappropriated and 467 million yuan lost or wasted by the government last year, the country's top auditor said yesterday.

Audits of 55 central departments exposed illegal allocations of funds totaling 3.5 percent of funds, and loss and waste of funds totaling 0.4 percent, said Liu Jiayi, head of the National Audit Office in a report to the ninth session of the Standing Committee of the 11th National People's Congress, China's top legislature.

The report said the illegal funding allocations involved misappropriation, false reimbursements, illegal collection or incomplete bookkeeping.