China's auditors found government officials were responsible for economic
losses of 5 billion yuan (625 million U.S. dollars) due to illegal or irregular
administration last year, said China's top auditor Monday.
The country's
auditing agencies checked 34,000 officials and transferred 116 of them to
disciplinary or judicial departments for punishment, said Li Jinhua,
auditor-general of the National Audit Office (CNAO) at the annual auditing work
conference on Monday.
The CNAO will continue its pilot audit of the
performance of provincial and ministerial-level officials in economic activities
and improve the auditing system of officials at lower levels, said Li.
He urged auditors to give priority to auditing the performance of
officials in protecting the environment, land policy implementation, government
deficits and significant decision making.
The CNAO will try to work out
a special regulation on auditing the economic performance of officials as soon
as possible, said Li.
Last June, China revised its Audit Law, which
requires government officials to be audited during their tenure to ensure
efficient use of public funds and prevent corruption.
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