NATIONAL authorities are planning to crack down on penalties given to families who violate the country’s family planning rules after a National Audit Office probe found US$260 million in fines had been levied illegally, State media reported.

    There has been growing public anger at authorities’ refusal to disclose information on the management of penalties collected from people who violate the one-child policy.

    The audit office’s investigation of 45 counties in nine provinces and municipalities from 2009-12 found 1.6 billion yuan (US$260 million) in fines had been given out in contravention of the rules, Chinese-language newspapers said Thursday.

    The “social support fee,” or fine, is meant to go into the government budget to compensate for resources and public services the child would use.

    National Health and Family Planning Commission spokesman Mao Qun’an said the fines are “a means to ensure the implementation of the one-child policy,” according to Xinhua.

    His department is now pushing “related local family planning departments to rectify misconduct in the collection and management of such fines,” the report said.

    The ministry “will take effective measures to address problems uncovered from the auditing process and improve the system on the collection and management of fines,” Xinhua said.

    “The commission will tighten supervision and guide local family planning departments to publish information for public scrutiny,” it added.

    The audit office said problems included inaccurate reports of the number of extra children parents had, fees not successfully collected and officials handing out higher fines than they should have.

    However, the figure reported for the amount of fines illegally collected falls far short of the more than 16.5 billion yuan activists say provincial governments have failed to account for. (SD-Agencies)