Academics want closer eye to be kept on cash
Academics have called on the government to keep a closer watch on research funding to prevent public money being drained away through corruption, according to a mainland magazine.
Highlighting several ways researchers have siphoned off government funds, the academics interviewed by Outlook Weekly also called for a more independent authority to approve projects.
Tang Anguo , director of the Higher Education Institute from the East China Normal University, said one of most common ways that research funding was misused was through equipment purchases.
'If the government has allocated 7 million yuan, the academics will spend only 5 million on equipment and the rest goes to their 'little treasury',' Professor Tang said.
He said some academics spent the money on cars and property, which they later appropriated as their own, while others ploughed it into personal pension plans. Other practices involved academics spending the money on travel, buying shares in their own companies and collaborating with other institutes.