Shenzhen wasted billions on World University Games, audit finds
Shenzhen's spending on world student event far exceeded budget and revenues, report says, but finds no serious breach by officials
Shenzhen lost 12.8 billion yuan (HK$15.7 billion) on the World University Games last year, a review by the city's auditor has found.
The auditor said it found no evidence of serious crimes involving the games, also known as the Universiade, despite investigations and prosecutions of at least eight senior officials, including former Shenzhen mayor Xu Zongheng , which some had attributed to spending in preparation for the event. Xu received a suspended death sentence in May last year.
"[The audit bureau] traced the Universiade's preparation and operation between January 2008 and September 2012 and hasn't found any serious violation of laws and discipline from operational spending to stadium construction," the report said. It made no mention of the officials concerned.
The auditor did say, however, that it found 50 million yuan in "problematic" spending, such as 11 million yuan in purchases outside of procedures and 12 million yuan that was not spent according to budget.
The report noted several small problems, including 745,500 yuan spent on fuel for a sailing competition which only needed a fraction of that.
The report will likely do little to end controversy over the spending on the games, in part because the auditor's 14-billion-yuan figure is so much smaller than estimates previously reported by mainland media.