The Director of Audit said on Wednesday that some HK$88 million in public monies needs to be recovered from companies that had used the funding to try and upgrade themselves to enter the mainland and other markets.

In one extreme case, he noted, a project had been terminated for nine years but the sum involved, HK$125,000, has still not been recouped.

The latest audit report dedicates a chapter to such allocations made under the BUD fund, which stands for Branding, Upgrading and Domestic Sales.

The auditor noted that when companies terminated or completed their upgrading, they're supposed to return unused amounts to the government.

As of the end of last year, he noted, there were 212 projects with outstanding funds to be recouped.

The periods for which the funding returns were delinquent ranged from four days to the most extreme case of nine years.

Around a third of the outstanding terminated cases have been more than three years, and the auditor said such a wait is too long.

The HK$88 million that is outstanding compares with just under HK$1 million five years ago.

Moreover, the auditor noted that, from 2021 to last year, it took officials between two and 446 days to collect information and seek clarifications from the companies for general applications.

He said officials need to speed up the handling of applications and look for ways to enhance public understanding of application requirements.

That's because in the past seven years, more than half of some 18,000 applications weren't successful and a lack of understanding was identified as one of the reasons.