Report: Govts misused $1.25b in affordable housing funds

Roughly 7.83 billion yuan ($1.25 billion) in public funds for China's affordable housing projects has been misused by local governments, according to the National Audit Office.

The public funds, which include government subsidies, bank loans and enterprise bonds, were funneled by local governments into infrastructure construction, industrial park development and government investment projects, according to a report released on Friday by the NAO.

From December last year to March, auditors investigated 272,500 families and 33,500 government departments and companies to oversee the investment, construction, distribution and administration of affordable housing.