China's National Audit Office, established in 1983, has audited more than three million work units around the country and withdrawn illegal and rule-bending funds worth 130 billion yuan (US$15.7 billion), Auditor-General Li Jinhua said here Tuesday.

Of the total, 466 cases involving 1.06 billion yuan (US$127.7 million) in illegal and rule-bending funds were dealt with in the first six months this year, Li told a seminar.

Although great improvements have been made, China's audit work still lags behind that of the developed countries in content, methods and information release.

"So far, the office has mainly focused on the legitimacy of the use of fiscal funds, and we do not have a complete auditing system capable of uncovering deep fiscal problems. Our auditing still depends on outdated hand-checking, and we do not have a regular release of auditing reports. All these things clearly hamper the development of our auditing work," he said.

Li stressed that in the next five years the major tasks of the National Audit Office will be to discover serious fiscal irregularities and crimes, and prevent corruption.

In order to achieve this goal, the office will pay more attention to the improvement of auditing contents and methods, said Li.

"By 2007, the office will put half of its concentration onto the validity of fiscal funds, aiming to uncover serious losses of state assets caused by ineffective management and mistaken decisions," said Li.

In addition, the office will increase the proportion of specific audits focusing on the implementation of important national policies.

Previously, almost all auditing reports were kept secret, and the National Audit Office only reported to the State Council and the National People's Congress.

"By 2007, the office will open all auditing and investigation reports to the public, except for those concerning State secrets," Li revealed.

(Xinhua News Agency August 20, 2003)