China will strengthen the strict control of social security funds

The Chinese government will launch a new campaign to audit three years on the huge social security fund in the country to prevent and discover the embezzlement.

Chinese inspectors at all levels will conduct an annual audit of the five social security funds, including insurance basic pension for enterprise employees, health insurance for employees based in cities, insurance Unemployment insurance work injury and maternity insurance, told Xinhua the National Audit Office (NAO).

The NBI will focus on the collection and expenditure of funds as well as their management.

The frequency of embezzlement has been attributed to inadequate laws, lack of transparency and inadequate public supervision.

Five campaigns on national social security fund have been conducted since 1998, revealing embezzlement in 16 of 31 provinces in 2004 and 1.7 billion yuan misappropriated in 2005.

Last year, the NBI has discovered 7.1 billion yuan (816 million dollars) of social security funds misappropriated, illegally borrowed, used or deposited.

The best known case involved Chen Liangyu, Party chief of Shanghai, crowns embezzling three billion yuan.

However, experts are pessimistic about the effectiveness of such campaigns.

“If the government was better ways to invest funds with appropriate regulations, diversions would fall by more effectively,” said Tang Jun, a researcher at the Academy of Social Sciences of China.

end of 2006 the social security funds totaled 282.8 billion yuan, increasing by 71 billion annually.

Pension funds in China are expected to reach 56.6 billion yuan this year. The premium income of insurance should represent 183.5 billion yuan and those of unemployment insurance, 35.3 billion yuan.