The Chengdu branch of the Red Cross Society of China should be accountable for a widely reported scandal that cash in donation boxes in the city for disaster relief were left uncollected for four years, an independent investigation has found.

The public supervision committee over the biggest humanitarian organization in China launched the investigation at the end of December in Chengdu, capital of Sichuan province, and released preliminary results on Friday.

"The Chengdu Red Cross branch is responsible for the mismanagement and poor maintenance of donation boxes, causing the money inside the boxes to become moldy," said Huang Weimin, an attorney with Grandall Law Firm in Beijing, and also secretary-general of the committee.