Audit shows mismanagement at SOEs, 190 punished

A total of 190 people at 11 state-owned enterprises (SOEs) have been punished for policy breaches or mismanagement found during an auditing survey launched last year, China's top auditing body announced on Friday.

Investment projects of the SOEs, including China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) and China Resources, did not go through due procedures, and irregularities were found in their financial management and internal regulation, according to reports released by the National Audit Office (NAO).

In one case, several affiliates under the CNPC had not conducted an open bidding process for some projects and purchases as required, which involved 26 billion yuan (4.2 billion U.S. dollars), the office said.

Affiliates of China Resources purchased vehicles at numbers and prices far beyond the stipulated limits, the report showed.

Other irregularities included hefty spending on building golf courses, exaggerating material costs and buying shopping cards for employees.

The NAO said the enterprises have made improvements to their regulations, and managed to retrieve and avoid losses amounting to 3.3 billion yuan.

Friday's reports are based on the auditing of the balance sheets and income statements of the 11 SOEs for the year 2012.

China has thousands of SOEs and 113 of them are directly administered by the country's central authority. These enterprises are deemed as the backbone of the economy, but their monopoly in many areas, unchecked spending and corruption have long been complained about by the public.

The NAO said it has tracked several leads on illegal economic activities and transferred them to related authorities. "The results of the cases will be released after the investigations end," the NAO added.