The National Audit Office yesterday announced it had discovered widespread corruption in 34 highway construction projects across the country.

The office made the announcement after auditing highway projects including the Sixth Ring Road in Beijing and the national Beijing-Zhuhai Expressway, in 2005.

It said 20 of the 34 projects did not strictly implement bid invitations and some were suspected of backstage deals or business bribery, which had affected the projects' quality.

The office found 15 projects illegally occupied land of 6,860 hectares but did not give farmers enough compensation.

They also found many construction companies illegally contracted projects out to unlicensed construction teams or individual labor contractors, causing serious quality defects.

Four construction companies responsible for the Bengbu-Mingguang Expressway in East China's Anhui Province contracted 84.97 million yuan ($10.9 million) worth of projects to 36 unlicensed construction teams, charging "management fees" of 19.46 million yuan ($2.5 million).

The 19th section of the Lishui-Qingtian Expressway in East China's Zhejiang Province involved at least two unqualified and incompetent contractors. Among the 119 road and bridge stakes they built, 46 have serious quality problems.

The office found some government officials took advantage of their position and power to interfere in bid invitations to gain benefit, causing serious loss of state assets.

The former chief procurator of Dazhou in Southwest China's Sichuan Province helped his relatives gain contracts in an expressway project, gaining benefits of 2.49 million yuan ($319,000).

It has also been revealed that five projects had backstage deals in the bid competition and evaluation process.

The office found transportation departments or construction companies in charge of 26 projects misappropriated construction funds of 2.158 billion yuan ($277 million) for recreation or distributing bonuses.

(China Daily 03/27/2007 page4)