Business Standard
Press Trust of India
September 11, 2015
Chinese auditors have unearthed corruption and accounting problems in the projects linked to USD 59 billion Three Gorges Dam, the world’s biggest hydro-power project, nearly two decades after its construction.
China’s National Audit Office says some 2 billion yuan (USD 314 million) remains unaccounted for in connection with an underground hydro-electric plant worth around 7-billion yuan (USD 1.11 billion).
It follows a critical report released last year that found nepotism and other corrupt practices in the construction of the dam, state-run People’s Daily reported today.
The Three Gorges Corporation, which runs the dam, claims all the problems pointed out by the audit have been rectified.
“China Three Gorges Corporation attaches a great degree of importance to the problems pointed out by the audit. At present all the problems pointed out by the audit have already been finished or rectified,” the company said in a statement on its website.
The Three Gorges Dam on Yangtze River is the world’s largest power station in terms of installed capacity (22,500 MW) and it has been controversial almost since construction first began in 1994.
Environmental groups had warned of risks of ecological disasters and over a million residents had to be relocated for the construction.
