A children's welfare institute in East China has denied that it used public donations to buy a luxury Mercedes-Benz to please officials.

A netizen said in a online post on Sep 1 that Hefei Children's Welfare Institute spent half a million yuan ($78,000) last year on a business Benz but it has largely remained idle in the garage, according to the official site of People's Daily.

The car is solely used by the principal and a driver of the institute for their private use, and to meet officials, the netizen said.

Yin Xueping, principal of the institute, responded on Monday that the car was bought with money from the government for 390,000 yuan, and it is mainly used for foreigners who come to adopt children, according to the report.

Wang Kaiyu, an official of charity affairs, told a People's Daily reporter that a charity organization should spend money on children instead of expensive cars.