It is some four years until the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. However, there are already accusations of impropriety regarding money.
It is reported that some of the money allocated for Olympic construction, may be being "nicked" by certain nefarious individuals.
I understand that the Chinese State Auditing Commission, which is highly respected for its professionalism and integrity, is about to investigate the matter.
The story seems to be the good old "officials on junkets" one; namely, officials and other individuals find reasons to tour cities that have held the Olympics in the past in order to "learn".
Needless to say, they don't use their own money, but that which has been allocated to pay for the construction.
It seems that the accusations go back to 2000, when certain individuals from Beijing went to Sydney on a "learning exercise". Athens, also hosted a very large group of Chinese officials during the 2004 Olympics.
The excuse, "how can we learn, if we do not see?", runs a little thin; when individuals from provincial towns, with no connection to the forthcoming Games in Beijing, take a "jolly". An additional problem, it seems, with these trips is that some of the provincial visitors cannot speak English; hence severely limiting "their learning experience".
Needless to say it is the poor old Chinese tax payer who has to fund these "jollies".
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