The Beijing Municipal Audit Office conducted an audit of the 2013 budget execution and draft final accounts of 40 first-level budget departments citywide. The “three public” expenses were basically controlled within the initial budget, but problems were also found. In 2013, 17 departments had untrue or incomplete budget preparation, of which 11 departments falsely reported personnel and office space area to obtain an additional 5.5 million yuan in fiscal funds.

82 project budget applications incomplete

Yesterday morning, Wu Sufang, Director of the Municipal Audit Bureau, reported to the Standing Committee of the Municipal People's Congress on the audit of Beijing's 2013 municipal budget execution and other fiscal revenues and expenditures. She introduced that the overall situation of municipal budget execution and other fiscal revenues and expenditures in 2013 was relatively good, but the audit found problems such as non-standard departmental budgets, inefficient coordinated use of idle funds, failure to complete performance targets for some projects, and illegal use of individual funds.

The "Report" pointed out that the Audit Bureau conducted an audit of the 2013 annual budget execution and draft final accounts of 40 first-level budget departments, sampling 868 projects. The audit found problems in budget management, financial management, and asset management.

17 departments had untrue or incomplete budget preparation, of which 11 departments falsely reported personnel and public office space area, obtaining an additional 5.5 million yuan in fiscal funds; 82 project budget applications were incomplete without details, involving 824 million yuan.

6 departments did not strictly implement government procurement, of which 5 meetings were not held at designated meeting venues; 16 vehicle maintenance services were not performed at designated units.

180 million yuan of low-rent housing guarantee funds used for loan repayment

A responsible person from the Audit Bureau introduced that the individual audit results of 38 municipal departments' 2013 budget execution and other fiscal revenues and expenditures will be announced to the public.

Another feature of this year's audit report is the explicit listing of audits of key special funds and key projects. Tourism development special funds, clean energy utilization special funds, and the South-to-North Water Diversion Project were all separately mentioned. The Beijing Municipal Commission of Tourism Development's tourism development special funds amounted to 997 million yuan; the audit found a large scale of fund balance, with 176 million yuan not allocated to projects.

In the audit of key projects, it was found that the management of some projects in the affordable housing program was non-standard, some projects were not publicly tendered, and 131 projects in 12 districts and counties had not gone through basic construction procedures; it is noteworthy that some project funds were used illegally or restricted. The audit found that construction units used 180 million yuan of low-rent housing guarantee funds to repay commercial loans and 180 million yuan of public rental housing construction funds to purchase bank wealth management products.

In response to the problems identified by the audit, the municipal government specially deployed rectification work, and through methods such as returning to original channels and adjusting accounts, rectified 2.943 billion yuan of funds.

Rectified funds

Relevant departments and units formulated a total of 71 rectification work plans, adopted 277 audit opinions and suggestions, established and improved 109 rules and regulations, and rectified 2.943 billion yuan of funds through methods such as returning to original channels and adjusting accounts.

In 2013, the total revenue of the municipal public finance budget was 306.93 billion yuan, and the total budget expenditure was 302.99 billion yuan, with a net surplus of 3.94 billion yuan after offsetting revenues and expenditures.

1 Loose approval of public expense budgets

Approved within the scope of policies and regulations, 3 departments arranged 250,000 yuan for clearing merchant subsidies in public expenses; inspection of the budget preparation of 40 departments found that in 45 project expenditure budgets, office expenses, training expenses, etc. that should be covered by public expenses were approved, involving 53.75 million yuan.

2 Low collection rate of taxes on rented housing

In 2013, the property tax, business tax, and personal income tax on individually rented housing collected on behalf of the government amounted to 846 million yuan for the year. 15 sub-district offices registered 57,700 households renting individual housing, but only collected 60.25 million yuan in related taxes from 9,897 households, a collection rate of 17.15%.

3 Irregular expenditures of some research funds in municipal universities

29 projects in 9 universities spent 2.55 million yuan beyond the budget scope; 3 universities, including Beijing University of Civil Engineering and Architecture (formerly Beijing Institute of Civil Engineering and Architecture), North China University of Technology, and Beijing Technology and Business University, diverted and fraudulently obtained 3.5 million yuan of research funds.

[Progress] The Municipal Education Commission has issued a notice, organizing relevant schools to take measures to correct the problems. The 3 universities have improved 8 systems in project fund management and acceptance. 360,000 yuan of funds from Beijing University of Civil Engineering and Architecture have been recovered and turned over to the treasury, 4,400 yuan from North China University of Technology has been recovered, and administrative sanctions have been imposed on 6 responsible persons.

4 Nearly 7,000 solar street lights replaced with traditional lights

From 2011 to June 2013, the city invested a total of 11.522 billion yuan to promote clean energy.

Idle and stranded funds amounted to 342 million yuan; 18.61 million yuan of supporting funds were not in place; 4 districts and counties including Fangshan misappropriated 2.5 million yuan.

Of 134 rural biogas projects in 4 districts and counties, 84 have stopped use; 16 of 37 photovoltaic power generation projects were not completed; 28% of solar bathrooms in 5 districts and counties were not put into use; 6,821 solar street lights in 2 districts and counties were replaced with traditional energy street lights; 1,525 electric sanitation vehicles did not achieve expected results.

5 138 million yuan of special subsidies for public rental housing idle for two years

Construction units used 180 million yuan of low-rent housing guarantee funds to repay commercial loans and 180 million yuan of public rental housing construction funds to purchase bank wealth management products; 138 million yuan of special subsidy funds for public rental housing in 3 districts were idle for more than 2 years.

6 State-owned enterprises lost 252 million yuan due to decision-making and other reasons

6 municipal state-owned enterprises involved assets of 733.322 billion yuan, total liabilities of 507.105 billion yuan, and total owner's equity of 226.217 billion yuan.

Losses caused by external cooperation matters due to decision-making and other reasons involved 252 million yuan; during enterprise restructuring, benefits were transferred to related enterprises through low-price transfers and other methods, involving 22.13 million yuan; related-party transactions caused damage to state-owned equity, involving 26.45 million yuan.

■ Dialogue

This year's audit report increases the intensity of problem disclosure

Reporter: In this year's audit work report, old problems are still found. How does auditing promote correction of such recurring problems?

Li Yongjun: This is also a key change in our audit report this year. In this regard, we analyzed the causes, comprehensively analyzing the reasons from aspects such as mechanisms, systems, management, and fund use. Among these problems, some are at the institutional level. These systems played a positive role at a certain historical stage, but some new situations and developments require further improvement. We communicated these situations with the government and also fed them back to relevant departments. Issues of disciplinary violations were transferred to relevant departments.

Reporter: What is different about this year's audit report compared with previous years?

Li Yongjun: This year's report has a large overall information volume, reflecting the requirement of full audit coverage, achieving full coverage of supervision over public funds, state-owned assets, and state-owned resources, and strengthening the audit of fiscal budget execution. This year, audits of key funds and projects were also added to the report. Compared with previous years, the structure of the report is more complete. In previous years, it was more about evaluating audit results, some rectification and feedback, and putting forward audit suggestions. This year, cause analysis was added, making the overall structure complete. Individual disciplinary issues were named and the intensity of audit disclosure was increased.

Reporter: In last year's audit report, more departmental violations and disciplinary issues were pointed out. This year, more names are universities. What is the reason?

Li Yongjun: There are two reasons. First, audits are conducted every year, departmental budgets are audited every year, and repeated audits of discovered problems will lead to fewer and fewer problems. This is how auditing promotes rectification. Now many problems have sunk to second- and third-level departments. In addition, the characteristics of audit reports vary from year to year, and the fields involved also vary. For example, energy was not involved last year. Different fields reflect different characteristics of problems.

Reporter: Will there be "follow-up" audits for departments or projects with particularly many problems?

Li Yongjun: Definitely. We have a rolling audit plan. Some units may be audited every 5 years, some every 3 years, and some every year. This is related to the amount of funds, whether they have fund allocation authority, and whether there have been more disciplinary problems found over the years.

Reporter: In last year's report, there were more than 200 cases of departments changing meeting locations, and this year there are 5. Is this related to the introduction of the central government's "eight-point regulation"?

Li Yongjun: I think what you said is the main reason. In addition, the municipal government attached great importance to these problems and conducted special inspections, correcting many problems while inspecting. Many departments also paid great attention to this aspect and consciously followed the regulations in meetings, official vehicles, and receptions.