Campaign to put an end to 'little coffers' launched
China wants to curtail accounts filed with money siphoned off from public funds
The central government is launching a campaign to stamp out “little coffers”, a reference to illicit accounts of officials with money siphoned from public funds.
The Ministry of Finance and the National Audit Office said in a recent notice that a nationwide crackdown on “little coffers” and extravagant expenditures will start in August, the People’s Daily reported.
Wu Qixiu, director of the Supervision and Inspection Bureau of the Ministry of Finance, said a “thorough crackdown on little coffers” was the key to ending extravagance.
“The inspection will cover all departments and units involved in budget management and financial allocation, with an emphasis on government and party offices, public institutions and social organisations,” Wu said.
He said the campaign would focus on violations of the financial and economic regulations since last year. But if the money involved is of a great amount, earlier years will also be included, he said
Inspectors will look into the collection of fines, administrative fees, public project money and profits of state-owned assets. These funds are supposed to be turned over to the state treasury, but they often end up being concealed, embezzled or allocated for unintended purposes.