China's auditors have found more than 810 million dollars worth of malpractice at four state asset management groups charged with handling state-run banks' bad debts, state press said Saturday. Auditors discovered that the four companies bought non-performing loans that had little chance of being repaid, to help disguise illegal operations, Xinhua news agency cited the National Audit Office saying.
The companies also used back door dealings to clear bad assets, the report cited Auditor-General Li Jinhua telling a recent national meeting of government auditors.
Some companies committed fraud by reporting fake financial figures and misusing funds for employees' salaries and subsidies, he said.
Earlier this week, the government announced plans to investigate nearly 8.5 billion dollars worth of irregularities by the asset management companies.
More than 70 billion yuan (8.4 billion dollars) in debt has been found to be suspect, the China Business News reported Thursday, citing unnamed officials at the China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC).
Among the problems discovered by auditors were falsified account books, improper handling in the valuation of depreciating state-owned assets and the misuse of funds recovered from the sale of non-performing assets, the newspaper said. The People's Bank of China, the National Audit Office and CBRC will jointly investigate 38 cases, it said.
China Huarong Asset Management Corp, China Cinda Asset Management Corp, China Orient Asset Management Corp and China Great Wall Assets Management Corp were set up in 1999 to dispose of 1.4 trillion yuan worth of non-performing loans (NPLs) at the big four state-owned commercial banks. Some experts estimate that China's fragile banking sector is ridden with as much as 500 billion dollars in debt.
By the end of last year, authorities in concert with the asset companies had disposed of 675.06 billion yuan worth of bad loans, according to the CBRC.
auto sales.
Chinese vehicle sales are likely to keep on slowing down this year and the stellar growth seen early this decade will probably never return, state media said Sunday, citing a leading industry analyst.
Total vehicle sales are likely to rise by about 12 percent this year to 5.8 million, Xinhua news agency reported, quoting Xu Changming of the government think-tank the State Information Center.
The "blow-out growth" of 2002 and 2003, when waves of newly-affluent Chinese acquired their first car, will not come again, Xu said.
Twelve percent growth would be welcome news in most countries' auto markets, but in China, it is down from 15.5 percent in 2004 and 34.2 percent in 2003, according to previously released data.
Passenger car sales are expected to fare slightly better, with an increase of 17 percent this year compared with 15.2 percent in 2004. But that, too, is a weak echo of roaring expansion rates seen in 2003, when passenger car sales sped ahead with growth of 75.3 percent.
Slowing growth reflects a gradually saturated market especially in the cities, where more and more middle-class families have now achieved their dream of owning a car.
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