A growing number of officials have been implicated in the misuse or embezzlement of poverty relief funds following a sweeping crackdown on official malfeasance across China.
Prosecutors investigated 658 officials responsible for poverty alleviation in the first five months of this year, a year-on-year increase of 53.7 percent, Supreme People’s Procuratorate (SPP) spokesperson Wang Songmiao said at a news conference on Thursday.
China launched a five-year campaign to crack down on corruption by officials engaged in poverty relief work, which began at the beginning of 2016.
Wang said that 4,775 officials in charge of agriculture or rural areas were investigated for alleged malfeasance in the first five months, with 2,640 involved in abuse of finances.
SPP investigations revealed that local-level officials were most likely to be involved in bribery, embezzlement, speculation and dereliction of duty.
China has boosted funding for resident relocation, ecological protection, electric power infrastructure and renovation programs in rural areas in recent years to help lift 70 million people in rural areas out of poverty and build “a moderately prosperous society” by 2020.
The SPP will tighten supervision and set up an information sharing system to ensure that all such funds are used effectively and transparently, Wang said, adding that an education campaign will be launched to increase local officials’ legal awareness. China’s central treasury allocated 13.9 billion yuan ($2.3 billion) to support poverty reduction efforts in 2015. http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/990260.shtml
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