State auditors blame red tape, poor plans, implementation
China's top auditor said on Tuesday that 9.7 billion yuan ($1.5 billion) in government funds for social projects had gone unspent, which experts partly blamed on certain officials who failed to act when action was required.
The findings come as the National Audit Office released Tuesday its first quarter review on the use of fiscal funds for major social projects such as poverty relief, urban sewage treatment and affordable housing, the Xinhua News Agency reported.
The audit office reviewed 1,796 projects in the first quarter. Among them, 74 problems related to fund use were rectified in January and February, involving 15.5 billion yuan. The total amount of funds which still require rectification is 9.7 billion yuan.
Redundant procedures for project approval, insufficient budget plans and inefficient policy implementation were among the reasons given for the poor use of the funds, Xinhua said.
"Too many small projects involving too many departments have impeded the integration of funds," Zhao Xijun, deputy director of the Finance and Securities Research Institute at Renmin University of China, told the Global Times.
Some departments easily managed to obtain funds, although unnecessary, which led to their being unspent, Wang Xiaolu, deputy director of the National Economic Research Institute of the China Reform Foundation, told the Global Times.
Grass-roots departments were careful not to integrate the funds for fear of losing projects, offending superior departments or failing in their performance exams, the audit office explained on its official website on Tuesday.
"Insufficient coordination among various departments could have also delayed the use of the funds," Wang said.
Zhao added that once the functions of departments with the funds have changed, the funds may become idle.
The top auditor suggested improving coordination between departments and improving fund management, Xinhua reported.
"To solve the problems, a unified regulation should be released to strengthen the fiscal fund management," Zhao said.
China has accelerated government spending on major infrastructure projects as part of efforts to arrest the slowdown in economic growth. The government has put an emphasis on the efficient use of fiscal funds to support major infrastructure and social projects as the broader economy slows.
In August 2015, the office found 22 provinces and two departments with a total of 36,000 hectares of idle land and 56.4 billion yuan in funds.
