A senior official said in Beijing on Monday that the Chinese government is going to more strictly monitor the use of public funds in scientific research and technological development.

Shang Yong, vice minister of science and technology, said in an interview with Xinhua his ministry would establish a watchdog which is responsible for supervising R&D expenditure in state-designated projects.

"We're going to set up an online uniform platform concerning the state science projects management, to which the public could get easy access," Shang said.

"We'll invite independent agencies to appraise efficiency of the state science project implementation," he said.

The ministry acknowledged that some public funds for state science projects went to crafty applicants who repeatedly get money from the state for same projects.

"We plan to build an inter-agency database which includes detailed information on every application for state funding," Shang said.

Appropriate use of public funding for research and development remained a hot debate lately against the backdrop of several scandals of squandering public money.

Chen Jin, a former dean at the Shanghai Jiaotong University, was disgraced for cheating in his so-called research on developing edge-cutting system-on-chips. Chen got several millions of yuan from the state for the R&D. He was finally sacked from the post as dean after a joint investigation, organized by the Ministry of Science and Technology and the Ministry of Education, proved he was cheating.

"An effective and fair mechanism for appraisal is vitally important for us to better supervise the use of public funds," Shang said, citing that the ministry will blind choose judges from a pool for nationwide applications.

(For more biz stories, please visit Industry Updates)