Others News
- Improper endorsement income found in scrapped oral health organization
Date: 23-May-2007 Sources: (Xinhua Online)
Investigators going through the books of an oral health organization that was suspended last month after experts queried its authority have found approximately 2.2 million yuan (285,000 U.S. dollars) of illegitimate endorsement income for the period 2002-2005, the Beijing Times has reported.
The Beijing Times report quoted a source in the financial department of the Ministry of Health (MOH), who said that an investigation report had been submitted to the ministry to 'solicit opinions', after the department concluded its preliminary investigation of the National Committee for Oral Health (NCOH).
The NCOH, whose qualifications for approving oral hygiene products had been disputed by industry experts, was suspended on April 30 after the ministry said it was unable to 'respond adequately to health development needs'.
'Auditing is continuing. The NCOH will be punished in accordance with relevant laws and regulations,' a MOH spokesman told Xinhua, without giving further details.
But the newspaper report quoted a ministry source who said that investigators had discovered that half of the 28 million yuan (3.6million U.S. dollars) of the NCOH's total income between 1997 and 2006 had been spent on salaries and routine expenditure.
Its total expenditure in the 10-year period was approximately the same as its income, the source was quoted as saying.
According to the newspaper, the investigation report did not say how the money had been used, but it disclosed that the organization had only six full-time workers -- two accountants and four workers from the school of stomatology under the elite Peking University.
It also revealed that Professor Zhang Boxue, a NCOH vice director, had drawn 'subsidies' of about 100,000 yuan (13,000 U.S. dollars) from June 2003 to January 2005, the newspaper said.
The newspaper said that Zhang had earlier told media 'We have not received a single cent of pay from the NCOH'.
But when the newspaper tried to contact Zhang, he hastily hung up the phone and turned his cell phone off, according to the Beijing Times report.
'Further auditing is needed before the ministry releases a final investigation report,' the newspaper quoted the MOH source as saying.
The NCOH, composed of experts, was set up in 1988 by the MOH with a mandate to improve the oral health of Chinese people.
Its name regularly appeared on ads for toothpaste, tooth brushes and chewing gums. Product labeling said that the products had been approved by the 'authoritative NCOH'.
At least nine products including Crest toothpaste and Lotte chewing gum have been approved by the NCOH, which was suspected of charging companies fees for these illegal approvals.
Last year several lawyers sued the NCOH, calling its qualifications into question. The court is yet to pronounce a sentence in that case.
The MOH will set up an oral health department under its disease prevention and control bureau to take over oral disease prevention and control work.
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