$113m spent on meetings by 45 depts

A total of 45 departments under the government have spent at least 698 million yuan ($113 million) on 8,698 conferences in 2012.

Liu Jiayi, director of the National Audit Office, said on Thursday that nearly 460 conferences were not convened at the designated place, indicating a higher rental expenditure than budgeted for.

Liu said more than 39 million yuan had been spent above the allocated budget.

The departments were responsible for at least 4,600 trips outside the Chinese mainland, costing about 1.2 billion yuan.