Seven officials may face trials and another 28 could receive discipline for their alleged involvement in educational fund abuse in south China's Guangdong Province.

Some 26 million yuan (US$3.1 million) in funds were discovered to have been misused in three major provincial education scandals, officials announced yesterday in Guangzhou.

Education bureaux in Wuchuan and Huazhou, two county-level cities, were found to have misused some 23 million yuan (US$2.8 million) in funds between 1999 and last year, said Zhang Yuhang, secretary-general of the Guangdong Provincial Disciplinary Inspection Committee.

"They ate out and poorly used local educational investment," said Zhang, pointing out that on dining fees alone, 1.85 million yuan (US$222,800), or 86 percent of them allocated to the Wuchuan Education Bureau, were spent. The funds should have been used for school-related costs instead.

Chen Weiqing, accountant of the education office in Dajiang, a town in Wuchuan, is to face judicial punishment.

The Huazhou Education Bureau defrauded the State by grabbing great sums of money by taking illegal commissions when text books and other teaching materials were purchased. The commissions totaled 16.42 million yuan (US$1.98 million).

The officials facing judicial judgment include two chief financial officers involved in the kick-backs.

In Xinyi, another county-level city, illegal construction was undertaken, with poor quality work done on student dormitories at a middle school. That led to losses of more than 3 million yuan (US$360,000).

In the case, four officials will be referred to prosecutors.

(China Daily July 7, 2004)