South China Morning Post
May 8, 2006

Much of the 1.96 billion yuan (HK$1.82 billion) that was earmarked to resettle families displaced by the Three Gorges Dam but was embezzled or misused has been recovered, auditors say.

Much of the 1.96 billion yuan (HK$1.82 billion) that was earmarked to resettle families displaced by the Three Gorges Dam but was embezzled or misused has been recovered, auditors say. Qi Lin, head of the Resettlement Office of the Three Gorges Construction Committee, told Xinhua the embezzled sum accounted for 13.4 per cent of the total 14.7 billion yuan set aside for resettlement purposes from 1995 to last year. He described the abuses as "serious", but claimed that much of the funds had been recovered and used for their original purpose. Xinhua said that after "self correction", 95 per cent of the resettlement fund destined for Hebei, one of the provinces where resettlement occurred, had now been spent on displaced families. In Chongqing – another major city affected by the scheme – 93 per cent of the money was used for the assigned purpose. Mainland auditors reported in January that 473 million yuan of funds had gone missing. Guo Shuyuan, deputy director of the Three Gorges Project Committee, denied last month there had been any large-scale corruption – a claim disputed by the relocated peasants.