Left-behind children are those left alone or in the care of elderly relatives in the countryside, while their parents are forced to move to cities to work. (Photo : www.news.xinhuanet.com)
Authorities of Guizhou Province and Bijie City face charges of not publicly disclosing audit information on their fund for left-behind children, which is worth an alleged 180 million yuan ($27.3 million), as reported by the Global Times.
Zhou Xiaoyun, the plaintiff in the case against Guizhou and Bijie authorities, is a former investigative reporter. On Wednesday, he told the Global Times that the Intermediate People's Court of Guiyang accepted his lawsuit on Tuesday.
Zhou first filed his lawsuit against the local governments of Bijie and Guizhou on Dec. 16, 2015, after the city rejected his request to disclose information regarding the fund for left-behind children back in 2012.
Left-behind children are those left alone or in the care of elderly relatives in the countryside, while their parents are forced to move to cities to work.
"It is very clear that they should make the fund's audit information public. If there is no such information available, that would be a blatant violation of the Audit Law. It is also against the government regulations on information disclosure," said Zhou.
Bijie City vowed to appropriate 60 million yuan each year for left-behind children in 2012 after five street children died from carbon monoxide poisoning while burning charcoal for warmth in a dumpster, according to a report on China National Radio.
Zhou said he applied twice for the disclosure of information regarding the fund after June 2015 when four left-behind children in one family died after drinking pesticide at their home in a village in Bijie City.
"However, the officials have only given irrelevant responses," said Zhou.
According to information disclosed on the website of Bijie's financial bureau in July 2015, the bureau received more than 177 million yuan between 2013 and 2015. Around 11.6 million yuan was reportedly used for welfare payments and supplies in 2013 and 2014, while over 47.4 million was reportedly spent on improving the living conditions of the children.
There were no further details provided.
"I need more details about where the money goes and why there is still a high frequency of such offenses," said Zhou.
