900 million appropriated from China’s social security fund
China said today more than $900 million was misappropriated from thenation’s $37 billion social security fund in the latest massivegovernment fraud to be uncovered.
The government didnot announce any arrests or even lay blame for the wrongdoing, but itsaid an audit revealed that most of the money had been siphoned off forforeign investments, building projects and commercial loans.
Thecountry’s social security fund was created in 2000 to help thegovernment cope with its massive and aging population, and to provide acushion in a country where the gap between the rich and the poor haswidened dramatically in recent years, despite a long running economicboom.
The report comes at a time when China has embarked on one of its most serious crackdowns on government corruption in decades.
In September, the government sacked Chen Liangyu, the Shanghai partysecretary and a member of the Politburo, after a governmentinvestigation determined that he was implicated in the misuse of socialsecurity funds in Shanghai.
Since then, several other governmentand business leaders have been arrested or called in for questioning ina widening probe of official wrongdoing involving bribery or stealinggovernment funds.
Some experts say the ongoing corruptioninvestigations are being used as a political weapon to removegovernment officials who are not loyal to President Hu Jintao.
But most analysts also say that corruption is endemic here and that it is threatening the country’s prosperity.
“The social security fund is the key to the stability of the society,”said Zhu Lijia, a professor of public administration at the NationalSchool of Administration in Beijing. “This affects a large number ofretirees and unemployed workers who live on the money. That’s why therehave been huge disturbances in various places.”
The socialsecurity fund fraud was uncovered by the national audit office, whichfor the past few years has been systematically scrutinizing the booksof government agencies and institutions and then releasing its findingsto the public.