一名来自中国东莞的公务员埃莉•苏在纽约州拿骚县实习时发现，拿骚县财政预算报告中存在重大纰漏，竟将一项数据“缩水”2.826亿美元。随后，县政府立即修改了这一错误，并对埃莉进行了表扬，当地政府官员更是称赞“她有一双关注细节的眼睛”。

New York, US.[File Photo]

A Chinese official, posted to an internship with a local government in New York to learn about government management, discovered a $282.6 million error in the newly submitted 2008 local budget.

Su Huixun, 27, a finance official from Dongguan, South China's Guangdong Province, had been working for the Office of Legislative Budget Review in Nassau County, Long Island, for only two weeks when she noticed a debt service document entry in the 2008 budget read $31.4 million instead of $314 million.

"You've got to have an eye for detail when dealing with fiscal matters, and Ellie (Su's English name) has that," said Nassau's budget review director Eric Naughton.

Su is working with the local government of Nassau for free, while the government of Dongguan continues to pay her salary and expenses.

"The officials we dispatched abroad all do a good job at home," said a source with the financial bureau of Dongguan.

Despite the mistake, Su said she was "surprised at how few errors I saw in such a big budget book," according to local media.

She said she took the internship "to learn more about the budget decision-making process in the United States".

"I hope to take back improved management methods to my city," she said.

Su received a master's degree from Saint Mary's College in California in 2003, and has worked for the government procurement division of the city of Dongguan, her hometown, for more than three years.

Her internship in Nassau was organized after her boss, Dell Hu, e-mailed Naughton after doing some research on the United States.

（China Daily/Agencies）

（英语点津 Celene 编辑）