Audit finds $38 billion in misused funds

China's top auditing body has found more than 250 billion yuan ($38 billion) in misused funds in its recent audit, with analysts saying the anti-graft campaign will pick up in 2016. Liu Jiayi, head of the National Audit Office (NAO), said at the national auditing work conference on Monday that the NAO conducted audits on more than 20,000 officials, and found misused funds of more than 250 billion yuan. Liu said NAO had handed over 321 officials and related staff to judicial and discipline inspection authorities. Audit authorities have been promoting the efficient use of funds, the smooth implementation of projects and identifying malpractices, said Liu, adding that authorities have audited 700,000 companies or institutions and retrieved over 1.7 trillion yuan. "The top auditor has played an important role in cracking down on corruption. And the Party strengthened its anti-graft campaign in 2015 by arresting corrupt officials and punishing them," Deng Lianfan, an anti-corruption expert from Hunan Province, told the Global Times on Monday. In 2015, more than 30 ministerial level officials from 31 provinces were placed under investigation for violating Party disciplines, and the anti-corruption campaign expanded to other branches, including the military, judicial departments, State-owned enterprises and regulatory agencies, according to the Xinhua News Agency. The Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) began a new round of investigations into major State-owned enterprises in November 2014, and dozens of senior officials in the petrochemical, coal and telecom sectors have been probed. Senior officials in State-dominated industries have been arrested, including the former chairman of China National Petroleum Corporation and the chairman of the FAW Group. "Going after 'both tigers and flies' - corrupt high- and low-level officials - responds to the needs of the Party and country," Zhang Xien, a Shandong University professor, told the Global Times. Complex situation But it also shows how complex the situation is, that even if the Party imposes strict rules and regulations on officials many are still willing to take the risk, said Zhang. President Xi Jinping said in a written interview with the Wall Street Journal in September that "As we go further into the anti-corruption campaign, we will focus more on institution-building so that officials will not dare and cannot afford to be corrupt and, more importantly, will have no desire to take that course." In October, the Communist Party of China Central Committee published new rules on clean government and sanctions on those who violate the Party code of conduct, aiming to improve the management of its 88 million members. The rules state that Party members must separate public and private interests, put the public's interests first, and work selflessly. And they require members to live a simple life and guard against extravagance. According to the Guangming Daily, 145,432 officials have been investigated for allegedly violating the CPC's eight-point frugality campaign started in December 2012. "Establishing an efficient and clean government workforce is very important. Having a strict system of rewards and punishments could help curb corruption," Zhu Lijia, a professor of public management at the Chinese Academy of Governance, told the Global Times. Provincial governments should provide more support to the CCDI, which has played a major role in pushing the current anti-graft campaign, said Zhu. Deng also said that pushing the anti-graft campaign nationally should not only rely on the CCDI. "Party discipline inspection agencies at all levels should take greater responsibility in supervising their officials. Judicial systems, audit authorities and the media should join hands in monitoring discipline violators," said Deng.