China will continue its efforts to crack down on economic crimes committed by officials, and the State Auditing Administration will publicize the results of its auditing of government organs.

Experts welcome this move, saying it will help improve the supervision of government officials, and help establish an accountability system within the government.

Ren Jianmin, a professor with Tsinghua University, says audit reports can reveal two kinds of financial problems within the government: unreasonable planning and poor budget execution.

He believes a system that publicizes audit results will help establish the accountability system within the government, which plays an important role in curbing official corruption.

"The audit rectification will exert a huge impact on society. First, it will force the government to adhere to the rule of law and follow the accountability system. Second, publicized auditing information will play an important role in facilitating the total openness of government financial information. Third, under this system, China's anti-corruption work will be more effective," said Ren.

He adds that to ensure the auditing administration play a central role in the future, the legalization of the system is crucial.

"Only through the legalization of good practices and experience, can the future auditing and accountability systems develop."

The system developed to publicize audit results took effect last year. Since then, over 20 billion yuan or US$2.5 billion has been identified as being misused though auditing.

By the end of 2007, China is expected to be able to publicize all audit results, excluding those concerning national and business secrets.

(Xinhua News Agency January 27, 2005)