Society

More govt disclosure to combat corruption

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2011-05-07 10:14

BEIJING - China has moved to combat squandering taxpayers' money on government officials' overseas trips, vehicle purchases and receptions, by disclosing how much has been spent in the past on such expenditures.

The State Council, or China's Cabinet, on Wednesday urged the Party and government departments to make their financial information public in more areas and provide greater details in the released information, especially in regard to using funds for overseas trips, vehicle purchases and official receptions, dubbed the "three public consumptions."

Experts said the move would help citizens to exercise supervision over the government.

Wang Xixin, professor with the Law School of Peking University, said the new policy had boosted information about government financial spending, adding that making government budgets and financial accounts public had been the objective of China's public fiscal reform.

"If the new policy could be implemented, it would boost public oversight of the government and engage citizens in exercising supervision over the government through safeguarding their rights to know," said Wang.

Transparency is not the ultimate goal, but a means to an end, said Wang.

Wu Zhongmin, professor with the Party School of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), said if the "three public consumptions"  were left unrestrained, funds available for other matters would become less and the government's credibility would be undermined.

China has been striving to build a service-oriented government which needs public supervision, said Wang.

The statement issued after the meeting underscores the meaning of public disclosure of government budgets: it is important to make government information transparent. It also protects citizens' rights to know, to participate and to oversee spending. It is significant for developing socialist democracy.

In China, some Party and government officials purchased luxury cars for their units and used them for personal matters. Also, unnecessary celebrations, seminars and forums were held using government funds, triggering widespread public concern.

The recent liquor scandal involving a well-know state-owned enterprise, Sinopec, has also drawn public attention to the "three public consumptions".

An online posting published in mid-April exposing that the Sinopec Guangdong branch spent more than 1 million yuan ($159,000) on expensive liquor, and later its general manager, Lu Guangyu, was removed from office.

Ye Qing, vice director of the Hubei provincial Bureau of Statistics, said he drove his own car to work for eight years but only drew a monthly subsidy of 1,000 yuan, thereby saving some 80,000 yuan of taxpayer's money each year, which might have been squandered if he chose to use the car purchased by the bureau.

China started asking government departments at the central level to publicize their budgets beginning in 2009. Last year, 75 out of 98 government agencies at the central level released their budgets to the public.

The State Council meeting held on Wednesday suggested that all 98 Party and government departments at the central level make their financial budgets public this year after the documents are approved by the National People's Congress.

"The openness of financial budgets still falls short of people's expectations as some departments lag behind in making their budgets public and some information released is not detailed enough," read a statement released after a regular meeting of the State Council.

Meanwhile, the State Council vowed to increase efforts in pushing local governments to release their budget records.