China has released recently more classified financial records for some important national institutions. The goal is to prevent corruption and open the institutions to further public scrutiny.

Most recently, China's National Audit Office released the 2003 audit records for the Customs General Administration and the 2002 report for the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China.

Professor Ren Jianmin from the Public Management institution of Tsinghua University says releasing these finantial records plays an importance role in preventing corruption.

"First, public notice of audit is the premise and foundation of supervision. Second, supervision is an important condition to realize the claim of responsibility. Third, public notice of audit helps government institutions to find out their internal corruption and fight against it. In addition, it also helps to prevent the upcoming corruption in financial fields."

The National Audit Office has announced that all audit reports will be made public by 2007, except those that may involve state or business secrets.

Professor Ren says China still needs to make further changes to improve the efficiency of state auditing.

"Problem-auditing is just what we are doing now: to make public notice of what is illegal or even corruption in implementation of budget. Efficiency auditing is to audit in an earlier phase when the government is making the budget and to make judgement on whether the budget is efficient. In this way, our efficiency of audit will be higher."

Releasing audit reports to public scrutiny has been playing a growing role in China's political, economic, and social life. However professor Ren points out that audits should be required through legislation in order to have a greater impact in the future.

(CRI November 9, 2004)