BEIJING, Nov. 30 (Xinhua) -- China has asked local authorities to step up supervision over poverty relief funds as cases of misuse were found in several places.

The State Council Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development has demanded rectification in three provincial regions and two counties.

Wangcang County, southwest China's Sichuan Province, left 409 million yuan (about 59 million U.S. dollars) of poverty relief loans unused by the end of October 2017 and failed to fix the problem this year. Haiyuan County, northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, falsified its poverty funds application and gave animal farming subsidies to unqualified people.

Gansu and Hubei provinces and Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region were also criticized for high default rates of small poverty relief loans.