BEIJING, Jan 7 Reuters -- China's auditing regulator said officials should keep their eyes open when conducting audits after recovering more than 300 billion yuan $47.04 billion in government funds, according to the state-owned Xinhua news agency.
Xinhua said that the task of auditing this year will focus on fiscal expenditure, including tax cuts and reductions, as well as the auditor general of the National Audit Office, Hou Kai, said at its annual meeting on Thursday.
In the first 11 months of 2021, the National Audit Office recovered 304 billion yuan after an audit, up from 220 billion yuan recovered a year earlier, according to Xinhua.
The report on Thursday did not say where the funds had gone, but added that about 23,000 cadres were reviewed as part of an audit.
Hou said of auditing officials, keep your eyes open, and discern the tiniest of problems.
The audit office will investigate and deal with problems that seriously disrupt financial order in 2022, Hou said.
The world's second-largest economy faces multiple challenges heading into 2022, due to a property downturn and strict COVID 19 restrictions that have hit consumer spending.
The cabinet in a meeting chaired by Premier Li Keqiang in December said that China will extend some favorable income tax policies to help middle and low-income groups.
The measure is expected to reduce taxes by 110 billion yuan a year, the cabinet said.