Making government clean and accountable
- By Wen Jiabao
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E-mail China.org.cn, November 2, 2012
(1) Further promotion of the reform of administrative examination and approval system, which sees the greatest concentration of administrative power. The reform should be regarded as a breakthrough in promoting the transformation of government functions and anti-corruption measures. The first step is to further adjust and ultimately reduce the government's role in administrative examination and limit the number of projects being slated for approval. The general idea is to reduce approval items and minify the government's direct management and intervention in micro-economic activities in a bid to make resources allocation more market-oriented. This year will see some examination and approval projects adjusted and others cancelled, both in the State Council and at local government levels. The key is to relax the restrictions on the investment of social capital. A market which can smash monopoly, broaden openness and boost fair access and competition will stimulate the country's entrepreneurial spirit. The second step is to improve and enforce the formulation and implementation system of project examination and approval. All projects should be approved in law and without this no administrative departments can, directly or indirectly, set approvals, especially "red tape", which would increase the burden of citizens, enterprises and social organizations. New approval settings related to the public interest should be open to public examination and opinion. The illegal administrative approval and violation of any party's legitimate rights and interests must be punished and victims must be compensated for any losses suffered. The third step is to strengthen the supervision and impose further restraints on the right of examination and approval. It is imperative that we further standardize and simplify the procedures and promote the openness of the approval process and its eventual results. The dynamic management system of administrative examination and approval should also be enhanced; the risk control mechanism of clean governance should be improved and entire supervision process should be bolstered.
(2) Promote the marketization of public resources allocation. This is necessary in order to perfect the socialist market economic system, foster social fairness and justice and implement effective anti-corruption measures. The first step is to further improve the transfer system of exploration and mining rights concerning state-owned land. All land bidding, auctioning and listing procedures related to land use or mining right transfer must be undertaken in a legal procedure and violations of these provisions should be eradicated. Officials' illegal intervention in these transfers must be eradicated. The second step is to deepen the reform of the government procurement system. The implementation regulations of the government procurement law should be issued and enforced as soon as possible. Systems of procurement budgeting, bidding, expert assessment and supplier management should be improved. Procurement procedures and procurement behavior should be normalized to ensure lower costs. The construction of a unified national e-government procurement management trading platform should be expedited in order to achieve a full-scale electronic operation. The third step is to advance management reforms regarding tendering and bidding. Bidding markets, which are scattered across all departments, require integration. We should accelerate the process of establishing and perfecting a unified and normalized market of bidding and public resources trading. The bidding on construction projects involving government investment and state funds, as well as government procurement, transactions involving state-owned property rights and the transfer of state-owned land use rights and mining rights should be ushered into the tangible marketplace. The bidding law and its implementation regulations should be enforced in order to strictly regulate bidding activities and prohibit officials from intervening in and manipulating the bidding process. Anyone found to be in breach of the law must be severely punished. The fourth step is to break monopoly and promote competition. Monopoly encourages unfairness and corruption and should be gradually eradicated. The injection of social capital should be encouraged and steered into railways, municipal administration, finance, energy, telecommunications, education and health care. Reform in the franchising and quota management sectors should also be promoted via bidding in order to foster transparency and fair competition.
(3) Deepen the reform of the financial management system. All finances, which come from the public, must be used for the benefit of the public. The first step in this direction is to further improve the fiscal transfer and payment system. The overall aim is to gradually reduce special transfer payments and expand the scale of general transfer payments. Additional measures should be carried out to clean up existing special transfer payments; and new ones must be strictly controlled. Those which are deemed necessary should come under the approval of the State Council. The notification system of fund transfers and payment management approach, funding allocation process and results must be improved. Corruption will be curbed and standardized management realized through openness and transparency. The second step is to deepen the reform of the departmental budget management system. Budget drafting is the foundation of financial funds management. The reform of basic expenditure and project expenditure should be advanced and the departmental budgeting should be significantly refined and improved. Every department should detail all expenditure in detail, and all such expenditure should have an explicit purpose. Budget execution management should also be strengthened; and the report system of budget execution must be successfully implemented. The adjustment of budget projects and expenditures must come under strict control in order to prevent problems such as the misappropriation of project funds. The third step is to further promote the reform of the state treasury's centralized receipt and payment system. The aim is for budget units at or above county level, and those of some qualified townships to be included into the system by the end of the year. The fourth step is to facilitate greater openness of both budgets and final accounts, ensuring that their contents are made public in greater detail than ever before. Departmental budgets of the State Council which are submitted to the National People's Congress should disclose all the data related to budget and final accounts and figures should detail individual projects. Funds for education, health care, social security and employment, issues concerning agriculture, rural areas and farmers and affordable housing should be fully itemized. The publication date of these figures should be fully disclosed and a matter of public record so that people can easily access the data exercise their right to supervision.
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