China's Sichuan Province to "closely audit" quake rebuilding spending

Special report:Reconstruction After Earthquake

by Chinese media writer Zhou Yan

CHENGDU, Jan. 27 (Chinese media) -- Southwest China's

Sichuan Province said Tuesday it will closely audit the use of post-quake

rebuilding funds over the next three to five years and publicly release the

results at the end of that period.

The province will carefully scrutinize the raising,

distribution and use of funds and supplies, according to a document issued by

the general office of the Sichuan provincial government.

"The funds and supplies [audited] will include

appropriations by the provincial and local governments, as well as donations,"

the notice said.

Central government appropriations will be separately

monitored by the Beijing-based National Audit Office. Last year, the central

government allocated 70 billion yuan (about 10.1 billion U.S. dollars) for a

reconstruction fund for the quake zone.

The document, however, did not mention the

controversial purchase of a luxury car in Beichuan, one of the hardest-hit

counties.

The mountainous county, where about 20,000 people

were dead or missing after the massive earthquake, paid 1.1 million yuan

including taxes for a luxury Toyota land cruiser.

The deal, exposed in a blog, triggered public anger

and was termed as "corruption" by some critics.

However, Beichuan's public security chief Zhang Depu

defended the purchase Friday, saying tough transport conditions made

high-quality cross-country vehicles necessary in emergencies.

He said the land cruiser would become a wireless

communications car for emergency use in rescue and disaster relief work.

The provincial document said that auditors in Sichuan

will give special attention to key projects and areas such as the rebuilding of

homes, schools, hospitals, welfare homes and other public facilities.

Auditors will also scrutinize quality control systems

in the post-quake rebuilding, it said.

The magnitude-8.0 quake that hit southwest China,

including many parts of Sichuan, on May 12 killed more than 69,000 people. It

also left nearly 18,000 missing, more than 374,000 injured and millions

homeless.

The Sichuan provincial government estimated

post-quake rebuilding will cost about 1.6 trillion yuan.

Workers from 20 provinces are involved in the

reconstruction effort. Those provinces will allocate at least 1 percent of their

annual fiscal revenues into the reconstruction projects for three years.