A whopping $34.37 billion went missing from China's $586 billion economic stimulus package and most of it went into the pockets of corrupt government officials, who indulged in buying expensive cars and other fancy consumer durables, reports said on Tuesday.

Responding to the global financial crisis, China had, in November 2008, announced a massive 4 trillion yuan ($586 billion) package to boost its economy and stimulate growth, but government auditors found $34.37 billion of it missing. Most of the missing funds have gone into the pockets of corrupt government officials, who indulged in buying expensive cars and other fancy consumer durables, reports said.

China's National Audit Office (NAO) had said in September that it would conduct special checks on the $586 billion stimulus package spending, and after auditing nearly 100,000 government departments and state-owned enterprises (SOEs), NAO's chief auditor Liu Jiayi said on Monday at the annual conference of auditors in Beijing that over 234 billion yuan ($34.37 billion) of public finances was embezzled.
 
Liu said his office had audited over 20,000 officials, including 14 provincial governors and ministerial-level officials, directors of 12 SOEs across the country and found that nearly 11 billion yuan was pocketed by corrupt directors and officials, with senior officials swindling 4.5 per cent of the total amount of $34.37 billion embezzled.

"In the course of raising domestic consumption, some of the allotted money never reached its destination, and some local funds were not properly managed and regulated," Liu said.
Apart from the $34.37 billion that government officials embezzled, 16.3 billion yuan was wasted on projects, said Liu.

Of the 234.7 billion yuan that was embezzled, auditors have already recovered 16.3 billion yuan and filed cases against 67 senior officials of SOE's for their alleged involvement in the massive embezzlement, while 164 others were handed over to judicial authorities and punished under the country's corruption law.

Premier Wen Jiabao told auditors at the conference to step up efforts to tackle corruption, while Liu said that his department has to enhance officials' awareness of law and set up clear accountability system at all government levels.

China, the world's fourth largest economy, with the largest foreign exchange reserves, had launched a 4 trillion yuan stimulus package in the backdrop of the global financial crisis that had engulfed the US, Europe and Japan and in turn hurting developing countries like China. (See: China pumps $586 billion to bolster economy).

Most of the $586 billion package was spent on infrastructure projects like the reconstruction after the devastating earthquake last year in Sichuan; the Beijing-to-Shanghai high-speed railway, the building of gas pipelines from neighboring countries to its borders, road and major dam projects.

But the huge projects proved to be a goldmine for corrupt officials in a country, which is prone to excessive corruption despite corrupt officials having been awarded life imprisonment or even the death sentence in some cases.

China's communist leaders have repeatedly warned that corruption, which has become so widespread in the country, will one day threaten the party.