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China recovers $4b embezzled in 2007

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-04-18 00:13

BEIJING - China's National Audit Office (NAO) said Friday it had recovered 26.77 billion yuan (US$3.94 billion) of fund, which was found embezzled in 2007, by the end of October last year.

However, the office did not reveal the total amount of embezzled fund.

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In its first auditing document issued this year, which explained the follow-up work on embezzled fund discovered in 2007, the NAO said 30 officials were arrested, prosecuted, or convicted in the process, and 117 were given disciplinary punishments.

As for the expenditure of 29.38 billion yuan found "problematic" at the ministerial level last year, the office said 17.5 billion yuan was a result of technical errors in the budgeting work, such as lack of detailed budgets.

More than 70 percent, or 8.4 billion yuan, of the remaining 11.88 billion yuan has been retrieved, according to the document published on the NAO website.