Thieves from within

A thief in the family is hard to detect. It would be harder when thieves gang up.

The latest clutter of thieves caught in the southwestern Yunnan province's financial bureaucracy is raw proof that the biggest threat to State coffers lies within the system. And of how rampant corruption can become in the absence of oversight.

Over the years, a number of local financial caretakers from the provincial, prefecture and county levels have colluded to swindle State money with non-existent "projects", embezzle government allocations and collect kickbacks for financial support granted. Millions of yuan, earmarked largely for poverty alleviation, has instead ended up flowing into their private accounts.