A report released by China's top auditor reveals that a total of 1.6 billion yuan ($26.2 million USD) of birth control fines collected in 45 counties and cities in nine provincial-level regions had been misappropriated from the beginning of 2009 to May 2012, Beijing News reports.

Family planning fines, or "social compensation fees" to use their official title, are paid to local family planning departments by parents that violate China's one-child policy. The system for the funds has been established for 11 years since the policy was introduced in the late 1970s. Fines can amount to tens of thousands of yuan for each extra child.

According to laws and regulations, local family planning departments should fully transfer the social compensation fees to local government budgets for purposes of public services and social projects.

However, preliminary statistics indicate that irregularities and corruption exist in the collection and management of social compensation fees in the country's 45 counties.

At county-level governments, the fines have mainly been misappropriated by channelling the fines back to the organs in the local governments, including the organs that collected the fines and family planning departments.

In central China's Hunan province, which ranks No. 1 in the sum of fees in misappropriation, almost 10 million yuan of family planning fines collected in five counties have been spent on local government's operation and hospitality expenditures, as well as allowance paid for government staff.

Besides, in order to raise more social compensation fees, local family planning offices have resorted to lifting the fines standards, and adding extra charging items without authorization.

The abuse of birth control fines has sparked public outcries. A group of 14 lawyers applied for the disclosure of details of "social maintenance fees" earlier this month.

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