MONEY intended to help China's poorest people get a better home was siphoned off by crooked government officials for fake projects, the country's top auditor said yesterday.

The low-rent housing fund was cheated out of around 213.6 million yuan (US$ 31.15 million) in the three years ending 2009, the National Audit Office reported.

It was revealing the findings of a two-year review into how affordable housing funds were spent in 32 big cities.

Officials in six cities and four counties were discovered bilking money from 2007 to 2009. Money was swindled from the fund using false documentation.

Other cash intended for poor families was used on unrelated government work and to buy back budget homes, the auditors said.

The low-rent home initiative is part of China's affordable home program. The low-rent home fund totaled 103.9 billion yuan for the three years ending 2009.

Among the 213.6 million yuan bilked capital, 152 million yuan was misused by officials on other government expenditure, while about 61 million yuan was illegally cashed out with forged application materials on 34 faked projects, said the office.

Two government officials and one real estate developer were arrested and another developer was detained by police after the investigation, the auditing agency said.

All of the 213.6 million yuan has been recovered.

Meanwhile, the auditor also discovered that housing subsidies worth 4.13 million yuan were issued to 2,132 unqualified families in 18 cities, while another 533 low-rent homes were wrongly offered to those who were over-qualified.

Lack of information on the income and property of applying families is blamed for the loose offer of subsidies and public homes.

Some 864,700 yuan of subsidies and 107 homes had been reclaimed by the end of August. The "back-to-track" effort is ongoing to clear all the irregularities.

Shanghai was among 22 major cities that failed to allocate at least 10 percent of its land leasing income to low-rent homes, the auditors found. Shanghai and other 10 cities made their full 10 percent commitment after the findings.

• yesterday [´jestədi] n.&ad.昨天；前不久 (初中英语单词)
• review [ri´vju:] v.&n.复习；回顾；检查 (初中英语单词)
• program [´prəugræm] n.说明v.为...安排节目 (初中英语单词)
• application [,æpli´keiʃən] n.申请；申请书；应用 (初中英语单词)
• estate [i´steit] n.财产；庄园；等级 (初中英语单词)
• investigation [in,vesti´geiʃən] n.调查(研究) (初中英语单词)
• agency [´eidʒənsi] n.代理商；机构；代理 (初中英语单词)
• meanwhile [´mi:n´wail] n.&ad.其间；同时 (初中英语单词)
• income [´inkʌm] n.收入，所得 (初中英语单词)
• crooked [´krukid] a.弯曲的；畸形的 (高中英语单词)
• ending [´endiŋ] n.结尾，结局 (高中英语单词)
• budget [´bʌdʒit] n.&vi.(做)预算；安排 (高中英语单词)
• initiative [i´niʃiətiv] n.主动权；首创精神 (高中英语单词)
• billion [´biljən] num.万亿 (高中英语单词)
• expenditure [ik´spenditʃə] n.消费；经费；费用 (高中英语单词)
• august [ɔ:´gʌst] a.尊严的；威严的 (英语六级单词)