279 mln yuan in relocation funds misused in Three Gorges Project: auditor

BEIJING, June 7 (Xinhua) -- Around 279 million yuan (45.3 million U.S. dollars) in funds intended for relocating residents to make way for the Three Gorges project, the world's largest hydroelectric dam, has been misappropriated, China's top auditing office said Friday.

In an auditing report on the project's financial accounts, the National Audit Office (NAO) said construction mismanagement led to an extra investment of 808 million yuan.

Other irregularities relating to project contracts and financial management involved a total of 6.7 billion yuan, the NAO said, adding that it also found problems concerning compensation for migrants, geological disaster prevention and ecological protection in reservoir areas.

Nie Weiguo, chief of the executive office of the State Council's Three Gorges Project Construction Committee, said the committee has made timely efforts to address the problems.

The Three Gorges project is a multi-functional water control system consisting of a 2,309-meter-long, 185-meter-high dam, a five-tier ship lock and 26 hydropower generators.

Construction on the project, which has a planned budget of 180 billion yuan, began in 1994. The dam was completed in July last year when its final turbine went into operation.

As of the end of 2011, investment in the project had amounted to 207.9 billion yuan, the NAO said.

In 2012, the Three Gorges Power Plant generated 98.1 billion kilowatt-hours (kwh) of electricity, according to the China Three Gorges Corporation.

Some 1.3 million people have been relocated to make way for the project.