South China Morning Post
May 31, 2006
Special inspectors have been sent to units responsible for resettling people affected by the Three Gorges Dam project to purge cadres guilty of corruption after several cases of embezzlement of resettlement funds were uncovered. The new order came as critics of the project warned of possible unrest by discontented, displaced peasants affected by the construction of the huge dam. About 140 corruption cases relating to the project, which involve billions of yuan and implicate hundreds of officials, have been uncovered since the project was launched six years ago. "Some 473 million yuan in resettlement funds was embezzled, misappropriated or illegally used in 1998 alone," Xinhua said, adding that "those punished included Huang Faxiang, a land management official in Fengdu county, near Chongqing in Sichuan, who was executed early this year for the embezzlement of 15.56 million yuan". Officials claimed about 430 million yuan of the funds misappropriated in 1998 had been recovered, adding that the money still missing would hopefully be replaced by authorities using public funds by the end of this month. Special investigators had been despatched to each resettlement unit to check their accounts, Xinhua said. "Investigators will also check if special subsidies for resettled peasant migrants were distributed on time," it said. The Chongqing municipal Government yesterday issued an order demanding that all funds designated for resettlement to be used according to law. It also listed regulations detailing how the use of such funds would be subjected to auditing. "Those who misuse, embezzle, misappropriate or cause losses to the funds will be dealt with harshly," the order said.