CITY authorities were investigating more than 20 applicants suspected of cheating to become eligible for government-subsidized low-cost homes, the city housing and construction bureau said Friday.
The 20 households were removed from the eligibility list for allegedly falsifying financial statements and lying about family assets in their application forms pending the investigation, the Daily Sunshine said Saturday.
They would face punishment if they were found to have made fraudulent statement, the Daily said, quoting housing and construction bureau officials. But it didn t elaborate on the punishment.
The final list of eligible applicants was posted on the bureau s Web site on New Year s Eve.
This was described as bad timing because holidaying residents were probably unlikely to notice the list and many applicants were found to be living in expensive apartments or owned cars worth more than 200,000 yuan (US$30,212).
We posted the list before New Year because we wanted to make the procedure faster, not to avoid public attention, said Hu Jianwen, vice director general of the bureau. The second round of applications for cheap housing had already taken a year, so the bureau posted the list before New Year in the hope of making significant progress at the end of last year, Hu said.
However, it showed that it was an inappropriate decision and we will next try to improve our work in the future, he said.
Hu said seven staff members had processed millions of data in the final monitoring, including bank account details and stock market information. More than 3,000 applicants were removed after the three-round assessment. Some people were angry about losing the chance and they even threatened us with knives. We were under a lot of pressure during the process, Hu said.
More than 5,000 applicants passed the final assessment, but the bureau would continue inspections because the list on the Internet was not final, Hu said. (Wang Yuanyuan)
