Audit finds big scam in low income housing projects
Print Edition
In a damning report the National Audit Office said yesterday that nearly 5.8 billion yuan (US$951 million) from China’s affordable housing program was embezzled last year.
The office also said that more than 100,000 unqualified households profited from the program.
The findings are the latest evidence of corruption and wastage in the country’s housing program for the low-income groups.
Most of the money was used to repay loans, replenish working capital or fund projects irrelevant to the program, the office said, citing results of an auditing campaign carried out between November 2012 and March 2013.
The audit found 108,400 households, who did not qualify for the program, received 38,900 units of subsidized houses and 153 million yuan in leasing subsidies by providing false information.
The office inspected 264,000 households from a total of 9.5 million who had benefited from the affordable housing and home renovation projects in 2012.
“Affordable housing program has generally improved living standards of the low-income population, but problems remain,” the audit office said.
The auditors attributed the irregularities to incomplete housing welfare system, insufficient inspection on money spent, qualification of households, and the lack of legal awareness of some companies and individuals.
Illegally leased and sold
The auditors also found 18,300 units of 34 affordable housing projects were illegally sold by developers and 5,333 subsidized units were illegally leased.
The report said most problems had been corrected and relevant government bodies had improved regulation on the program.
The report was released amid worries that the affordable housing resources are largely wasted and misplaced due to the projects’ remote location and irregularities during its distribution.
An official in Shenzhou said last week that half of the 10,000 candidates who qualified for the city’s latest affordable housing project had given up their rights because of the remote location.
The audit office in Shandong Province claimed in a report last week that 40 percent of the province’s affordable housing apartments have been lying vacant for more than six months.
Hainan, Guangdong and Henan provinces as well as Shanghai all reported high vacancy rates in this category of housing projects.
Last year, at least three government officials were sacked after they were found to own too many apartments, including ones from the low-income projects.
Affordable housing program, first approved in 1999, is designed to provide housing through leasing or sales to low-wage residents edged out by the real estate prices. China has a goal to build 36 million units of affordable housing between 2011 and 2015.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
