China's chief auditor has vowed to keep publicizing audit
results from government departments, particularly those of the
central government, to continue regulating and enhancing government
spending transparency.
"Fiscal revenue comes mainly from taxpayers. There should be an
explanation to the taxpayers of how the money is spent," said Li
Jinhua, Auditor General of the National Audit Office (NAO), at a
meeting of fiscal chiefs of central government departments.
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"The only way to explain this is to publish audit results, except
information involving state secrets," said Li, a national icon
since starting a crusade against irregularities in government
spending, an acute public concern.
The NAO has identified 14.6 billion yuan (US$1.85 billion) of
funds misused by central government departments over the last two
years.
The irregularities included: the National Development and Reform
Commission using public money to build houses for its staff; the
Ministry of Education investing in unlicensed projects; and the
Ministry of Civil Affairs failing to include 18.09 million yuan of
proceeds from a land sale on its books.
Li said many countries made national budget details available in
bookstores. These precisely indicated how much money was allocated
to every department and to what end.
He said the office would again name central government
departments with fiscal transgressions in a report to a national
legislature session next year. This good news came amidst
speculation that the office would stop "naming and shaming" for
fear of offending too many people.
The office had focused on irregularities in central government
department budgets because of their exemplary role, said Li.
"If they fail to act according to law, how can they demand local
authorities abide by the law?" said Li.
The practice of announcing the irregularities, known as an
"audit storm", has proved effective in getting image-conscious
government departments to mend their ways.
?However, Li said government departments would be granted
over a month to conduct self-examinations before this year's
audit.
"If they find and correct problems themselves, we will not
mention them in our audit reports," said Li.
The ultimate purpose of the audit was to "solve problems", he
said, adding the auditors hoped to identify fewer problems due to
the audit's cost. Better internal management and legal propriety
would save auditors a lot of trouble.
Li said the "audit storms" of recent years had born results and
that the overall budget management of central government
departments had seen marked annual improvements.
"It's possible that after a few more years, central government
departments will be disentangled from major irregularities in
general," he said.
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(Xinhua News Agency November 15, 2006)