Poor villagers were forced to borrow cows to fake a photo call to prove a new anti-poverty policy was working amid allegations of financial impropriety, Southern Rural newspaper reported on Tuesday.

Liu Rongkun, Party secretary of Dutou village in South China's Guangdong province, admitted some cattle was loaned on rare occasions.

In 2011, the village in Meizhou city's Dabu county received 1.3 million yuan from Sinopec and Dabu county's financial bureau for poverty relief, but it is alleged 100,000 yuan was given to Liu's son to build a chicken industry base.

A villager also claims they were asked to inflate the amount of money they actually received when high-ranking officials visited.

He Rongpeng, an official from Dabu county, claimed the money should not have been used for a chicken base project and Liu's son must return 10,000 yuan every year as it was actually meant to help 34 poor families.

The project for repairing dilapidated property is also under question as reportedly only half of the houses have been repaired and others were required to be "away" if inspectors visited.