The audit bureau of Wuhan, capital of Hubei Province in Central China, recently discovered misuse dozens of millions of yuan worth of public money, according to Saturday's China Youth Daily.

Wuhan audit bureau released a report on its auditing results, which said since 1991, Wuhan municipal civil affairs bureau has kept the 5.4 million yuan (US$653,000) donations used for flood control.

Each year the bureau deposited part of the money in the account of a local company. In 1996, the money in the account accumulated to 9.18 million yuan (US$1.1 million).

Other misappropriation includes the municipal archives who embezzled 20 million yuan (US$2.4 million) for buying houses and cars, which were given to the staff. Money also went to the monitoring department conducting a riverside road project, and paying an extra 2.4 million yuan (US$290,206) to the construction party.

Long Zhengcai, the director general of the audit bureau said their auditing not only involved ordinary income and expenses, but also reached into fundamental financial areas such as management system and profits. The extensive investigation helped the government to improve its supervision of funds usage and eradicate corruption.

(Xinhua News Agency September 26, 2004)