Millions of air pollution funds embezzled in China
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Photo taken on Dec. 23, 2015 shows the buildings in smog in Shijingshan District of Beijing, captial of China. [Photo: Xinhua/Zheng Huansong]

Tackling air pollution is a tough task for the Chinese government.

Recently news broke that 'huge sums' of money given to local governments for air pollution has been embezzled. Air pollution is an issue everyone faces and many are angry to hear such news.

The Ministry of Finance issued a notification on Monday saying that millions of funds for air pollution given to local governments have been embezzled or wasted.

The Ministry published its investigations on the use of funds by nine provinces and municipalities, including Beijing and Tianjin, from 2013 to 2015. The nine provinces and municipalities received 23.94 billion yuan (about 3.5 billion USD) in total.

The Ministry found the money was used for other things, such as to renovate office buildings, entertain guests, or pay salaries.

For example, 10 counties from east China's Anhui province were given 219 million yuan (about 32 million USD) to implement the prohibition of burning straw between 2014 and 2015, of that money, 2.57 million yuan (about 373,00 USD) were used on unassociated expenses.

They are not the only example, Tianjin Environmental Protection Bureau spent 4.25 million yuan (about 616,000 USD) of their funds on payment for transport, administrative expenses, and postage generated when weeding out heavy-polluting vehicles.

The Ministry of Finance said it will recover the embezzled money and tackle the issues from the investigation.

It said it will perfect the fund management systems.

Zhang Lianqi, a member of the CPPCC (Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference) National Committee and an economist, said the funds are for air pollution which is bound to the public's everyday life.

The local governments are breaking the budget law, Zhang said.

Cities across China are regularly subject to a series of smog alerts as the winter sets in.

To solve the problem, Beijing has considered listing the worst smog events as meteorological disasters in a draft law. The draft entered its third review at the 14th session of the Standing Committee of the People's Congress of Beijing on November 23.The draft claims that severe consequences caused by mistakes in broadcasting about meteorological disasters would be punished, according to media reports.

Author： 　　　Source：CRI　　　 Editor：Yang Fan