China to crack down on family planning fines after abuses found

Authorities will review the use of penalties imposed on families who violate strict family planning rules after a National Audit Office probe found 1.6 billion yuan (HK$2 billion) in fines had been misspent, state media reported.

A government check of 45 counties in eight provinces and Chongqing found that much the money collected from the fines had been spent in violation of the rules.

The National Audit Office said on Wednesday that the fines to compensate for the public services used by the extra child - officially called "social compensation fees" - were retained by the government agency charged with enforcing the one-child policy, in violation of guidelines on collecting the fines, released in 2002.

The probe going back three years comes weeks after more than a dozen lawyers wrote an open letter to the National Audit Office asking whether the accounts have been audited.

Wu Youshui , a lawyer from Zhejiang who applied in July for provincial governments to release information on the fines, said the reports confirmed suspicions about the chaotic state of affairs regarding their collection.

Guidelines say that the fines must be submitted to local government treasuries and be spent on public services. Revenue from the fines does not belong to the central government or local government agencies enforcing the one-child policy.