Huang Jinjin had a bitter taste in her mouth when she learned that the National Committee for Oral Health (NCOH) had taken money from health product makers in return for endorsing their products.

An audit has revealed that the State-authorized NCOH pocketed 2.085 million yuan (275,000 U.S. dollars) from illegal product endorsements over the past four years, the Chinese Ministry of Health (MOH) announced on June 11 after a month-long investigation.

The audit also revealed that committee heads had illegally accepted 46,000 yuan (6,000 U.S. dollars) in allowances and 74,000 yuan (9,700 U.S. dollars) in housing subsidies, according to MOH, adding that the money has since been returned.

The Ministry said the illegal income from endorsements will be confiscated, and the leading members of this former oral health body will be punished.

The committee was shut down on Apr. 30 by the MOH and replaced with an oral-health section under the ministry's Disease Control Department, which will regulate oral-health products.

Even though the sums are relatively small, consumers feel very let down by the revelations.

"To me, the logo (of the NCOH) was a certificate I could rely on and trust, but in the end they turned out to be big liars. I feel shocked and betrayed," said Huang, 33, who works in a Beijing-based national bank.

Huang is not alone. The logo of the agency -- known to millions of Chinese consumers -- appeared on tubes of toothpaste, toothbrushes and chewing gums and also in TV commercials with eye-catching phrases like "certified by the authoritative NCOH".

However, it was never officially registered with the Certification and Accreditation Administration (CAA) and was not qualified to approve products. Since 1992, four years after its inception, the NCOH began to issue certifications for oral-health products in exchange for money. Many of the certified products were leading brands, including Proctor & Gamble's (P&G) Crest toothpaste, Lion toothbrushes and Lotte chewing gum.

Even when it was suspended in July 2005 by the MOH and the CAA, the committee continued endorsing products.

When it endorsed a product, the NCOH would ask the company to "donate" to an oral-health foundation under its control. The foundation is reported to have received large donations from manufacturers of oral-health products. The biggest donation, 10 million yuan (1.25 million U.S. dollars), was from the P&G Group. The NCOH also signed a contract with a domestic producer, Snow Leopard Household Chemical Co, according to which the company had to donate 100,000 yuan (13,500 U.S. dollars) to the foundation each year for NCOH certification of its products.

However, according to NCOH vice president Zhang Boxue, the practice is "neither illegal nor a power-for-money deal, but rather a practice that reflects 'Chinese characteristics'," he was quoted by the Southern Metropolis News as saying.

Zhang said money donated to the NCOH and its foundation was used for oral-health promotion and that he himself barely received a penny from the foundation under his management.

However, the investigation carried out by the MOH revealed that half of the organization's income was spent on operational costs and salaries and benefits for its six full-time staff members. Zhang was found to have drawn some 100,000 yuan (13,500 U.S. dollars) as a housing allowance from the foundation over a period of 18 months from June 2003 without proper permission.

The NCOH and the foundation also lent money to companies at interest, which was also illegal, and the proceeds will be confiscated, according to Li Gang, a doctor of law at Qinghua University, who accused the committee in July 2005 of not having sufficient authority to appraise products.

Deng Guosheng, president of a non-governmental research institution at Qinghua University, said "similar practices are quite common in non-government professional organizations in China."

"It is always more convincing to have a recommendation from a third party, preferably a government or professional organization, than for the company to boast about the product itself," agreed a medicare products salesman.

"But the organizations will not do it for free. It is quite common for them to ask for donations or sponsorship," he said.

"If a company is a responsible corporate citizen, it should cherish its credibility and reliability and honor the trust of the community and its consumers," said Prof. Deng Guosheng. He added that exaggerated ads and business tricks hurt consumers and damage a corporation's image and its brand.

"The NCOH has been approving products illegally for 15 years and it connived with companies whose exaggerated advertisements said they had NCOH approval. Why was none of this noticed?" asked Li Gang.

Mao Shoulong, director of the Department of Administrative Management of Renmin University of China said a lack of proper government supervision was the main cause of the NCOH's illegal certifications of products.

"The incident exposes the problem of poor regulation and supervision of health products in the country," said Mao.

He said industry associations and the government both have their roles to perform. Industry associations should function as self-governance bodies within the framework set by the law while the government should focus on supervising and servicing the associations.

"It must ensure associations operate according to the law without pursuing profit and stop being an umbrella under which these industry associations can shelter," he said.

In the wake of the NCOH scandal, China's State Council, or cabinet, has called for tighter supervision and faster development of the country's increasing number of professional, industrial and non-governmental organizations.

"Representative organizations should be separate from the government, and governed by law," according to a Sate Council circular, which wants a clear definition of the functions and relations between governments and the organizations.

It asked government departments at all levels to solicit opinions and suggestions from the organizations when laws, regulations and policies are being developed.

On a recent trip to the supermarket, Huang Jinjin noticed that the name NCOH and its fake certification had disappeared from tubes of toothpaste, but she made another discovery.

"Some toothpastes still carry the logos of other health organizations. Does it mean that the void left by the NCOH has been filled by other bodies?" she wondered.

"Anyway, I will ask my friends what toothpaste they think is best because now I am skeptical about so-called authoritative recommendations. I guess mending the loopholes of government supervision takes a lot longer than getting a tooth filled."