Government rest facilities built for the sick are instead being used as holiday homes, a public auditors' report released Wednesday shows.

The rest homes and other facilities were built and run under a government health insurance program for workers at small and midsize businesses. But a survey by the Board of Audit shows that none of the people who stayed at the rest homes in the five years beginning 1998 had used them to recover from illness.

It says only 1 percent of those who used health and welfare centers did so to rehabilitate from illness or injury, and that the rest homes and health and welfare centers are now mostly used for leisure and tourism purposes.

"The meaning for their existence is fading," the board said of the facilities.

People covered by the health insurance program for small and midsize businesses, and their families, are allowed to use the facilities.

Under the original plan, the rest homes were to give priority to people convalescing after illness and those designated by doctors and through health checkups as requiring rest. Use for other purposes is allowed only if it does not affect stays by the priority users.

But no full-time dietitians or trainers are on hand at the health and welfare facilities.

The board surveyed 11 of around 20 rest homes and seven of 13 health and welfare centers nationwide that were built and are run under the insurance program managed by the Social Insurance Agency.

As of fiscal 2002, the insurance program covered 19.16 million workers at smaller businesses that have no in-house health insurance associations. With family members added, the program covers 36 million people.