China's Red Cross Society on Wednesday was forced to explain several discrepancies in its budget last year, as it battles to quell public anger and mistrust following accusations of corruption.

The aid agency has been hit with claims that a young woman who posted photos online flaunting her wealth is the daughter of one of its vice presidents, and that her lavish lifestyle is being bankrolled by embezzled charity funds.

On Monday, the state auditor also said it had found five problems in its review of the Red Cross' 2010 budget, such as money allocated for training that did not take place, further fuelling suspicion about how donations are used.

The charity published a detailed response to those five discrepancies on Wednesday, saying there was no corruption involved.

A day earlier, Wang Wei -- one of the organisation's vice presidents -- held a hastily arranged press conference and told reporters that the woman in the photos was not an employee.

He added that "Guo Meimei Baby", as she called herself, was not related to another vice president called Guo Changjiang.

The girl's photos showed her leaning on the hood of a Maserati she said was a 20th birthday gift, and she claimed to be the general manager of a company called Red Cross Commerce, the official China Daily newspaper said.

Since the scandal blew up, she has denied any relationship with the charity and admitted she faked her work title.

Chinese people bristle at any hint of official misappropriation of public funds, as the rich-poor divide widens in a country where corruption is pervasive at every level of society.

But the aid agency's efforts at damage control have so far done little to dissipate public anger.

"Guo Meimei showed off her wealth by using charitable donations from the Red Cross, which amounts to stabbing the public's benevolent heart," one netizen said on Sina Weibo, China's homegrown Twitter-like microblogging service.

"The Red Cross is really depraved, I'm not going to donate in the future," another said.

According to the official Global Times newspaper, this is not the first time that the Red Cross has come under fire.

In April, a photo of an invoice showing that a department of the Shanghai branch had spent 9,859 yuan ($1,525) on a meal was posted online, sparking an outcry, a report said.

Tweet

Related Links Hospital and Medical News at InternDaily.com