Government land funds queried

By Lydia Chen  |   2008-6-5  |     NEWSPAPER EDITION

GOVERNMENTS in 11 major cities, including Shanghai and Beijing, were found to have misused a total of 8.4 billion yuan (US$1.2 billion) from land-grant fees, the National Audit Office said yesterday.

Among the misused funds, 5.24 billion yuan was spent on construction or renovation of government buildings while 3.14 billion yuan was loaned or used for investments, Qu Aicai, a senior official with the audit office, said in a report posted on its Website.

The audit, carried out last year, covered land-grant records from 2004 to 2006 in Shanghai, Beijing, Tianjin, Chongqing, Harbin, Hefei, Jinan, Changsha, Guangzhou, Nanning and Chengdu.

The governments in Shanghai, Tianjin, Changsha, Nanning, Chengdu, Harbin, Hefei, Guangzhou and Jinan illegally offered discounts of 4.8 billion yuan on land-grant fees to investors and some gave state-owned land for free to attract investments, Qu said.

Separately, 17.33 billion yuan of land-grant fees remained unpaid from land users in Shanghai, Chongqing, Nanning, Harbin, Jinan, Chengdu, Hefei, Changsha and Guangzhou, Qu said.

The 11 cities lent a total of 86,773.34 hectares of state-owned land by the end of 2006, which earned a combined income of 261.87 billion yuan, according to Qu.

By the end of January this year, 6.83 billion yuan of unclaimed fees and loans had been returned to the 11 city governments, Qu added.

The audit office also spot-checked 38 land projects in the cities, which included 64 communities in rural areas that provided land to investors.

A total of 97.81 percent of farmers who gave up their land and homes received all-up compensation of 82.54 billion yuan, Qu said.

Governments in Shanghai, Beijing, Tianjin, Chongqing, Hefei, Jinan, Guangzhou and Chengdu have set up systems to ensure that farmers are protected in land-grant deals.