The Ministry of Health finally released part of its findings yesterday from its audit of the infamous National Steering Panel for Dental Disease Prevention and Treatment.

The panel, in existence since 1988 under the wings of the ministry, collected more than 2 million yuan in certification fees from toothpaste producers from 2003 to 2006. Under 2003 legislation on certification, the panel was not qualified. According to the audit's findings, the panel's accounting and fund management were messy.

Since the scandals broke last year, the ministry has distanced itself from the panel. Like many previous cases of wrongdoing involving official institutions, the ministry presented a comprehensive correction plan after announcing the audit's findings.

All the inappropriately distributed subsidies were paid back; all income from certification will be transferred; and remaining problems involving the panel will be investigated thoroughly.

Every problem uncovered seems to be properly dealt with, with the guilty on the road to punishment. This may sound like the perfect ending. But it is not.

The audit covered only four years of panel activity. The panel's profit-oriented activities lasted much longer.

Earlier reports quoting sources within the ministry put the panel's revenues from 1997 to 2006 at more than 27 million yuan ($3.5 million). To see the true magnitude of the problems, we believe it is in the best interest of all parties concerned for the ministry to conduct a thorough investigation that covers the institution's 19-year history.

Just to satisfy the public's right to know, it is necessary to establish the trail of money flowing within and through the disgraced affiliate of the ministry. If the ministry is confident of its own innocence, it has no reason not to conduct a thorough investigation.

And money is only part of the story. The Ministry of Health acknowledged the panel was established under its auspices. It claimed the panel contributed a lot to national awareness and prevention of dental disease.

But the ministry failed to explain how the panel's fraudulence could have grown so rampant right before its eyes.

(China Daily 06/12/2007 page10)