China's top auditor has urged the country's auditing departments to audit projects that are related to the people's concerns, which may involve medical care and old-age pension.

Li Jinhua, auditor-general of the National Audit Office (NAO), made the remark in a recent research tour in South China's Hainan Province, saying the interests of the people first should be applied to auditing work.

"We'll audit the problems that common people complain about and report the auditing results to them," he said.

Punishment is necessary for irregular or illegal practices found in auditing but relevant prevention is also important, he said.

Meanwhile, the rectification of departments and institutions blamed of such irregular or illegal practices is the ultimate goal for auditing instead of publicizing the auditing results, he said.

In the first 11 months of 2005, central and local auditors looked into some 91,000 government departments and institutions funded with government budgetary money, and discovered various kinds of irregularities involving more than 290 billion yuan (about 36 billion U.S. dollars), according to NAO statistics.

The auditors audited some 22,000 officials at different levels, and detected irregularities involving 35 billion yuan (4.35 billion dollars). A number of these officials were punished by law or discipline, the NAO said.

Source: Xinhua