Officials at the Three Gorges dam in China are reported to have embezzled five billion yuan (US$600M) which was set aside for the relocation of people in the path of the dam, according to the Agence France Presse. The amount represents 12% of the 40B yuan budget set aside to relocate 1.2M people who lived at the dam site.
It is the first time that details of corruption surrounding the project have been revealed. Doubts about the US$27B project surfaced in public last year when Prime Minister, Zhu Rongji warned officials to ensure there was no negligence in the construction of the dam.