China's top auditor will focus more on government and institutional spending,
increasing transparency, and strengthening internal control and management to
improve the quality of auditing throughout the nation.
"These are major objectives I want to achieve within my tenure," said Li
Jinhua, auditor-general of the National Audit Office (NAO), in an interview with
the People's Daily.
Li Jinhua, widely
known as the "iron-handed auditor-general," said the public will have
access to audit information both through Internet and free printed
bulletins. [newsphoto/file] |
Li was
re-elected as top auditing administrator in March 2003 for another five-year
tenure.
Programme results auditing aims at checking whether government programmes and
activities are meeting their stated goals and objectives. Li says his office
will devote half of its efforts to the goal between now and 2007.
Currently, the auditing mainly focuses on whether money is used according to
laws and regulations.
The NAO discovered a huge waste of funds during the construction of a dozen
airports in 2002.
To promote transparency, Li has promised to make the audits available to the
public in a more comprehensive way.
"All problems dug out in a specific audit will be released on the website of
the National Audit Office. The public can also get printed audit bulletins free
of charge," Li said.
By making public their reports, citizens can gain a better understanding of
how money is being spent and scrutinize spending, said Ren Jianming,
vice-director of the Anti-corruption and Governance Research Centre at Tsinghua
University.
The NAO has made two proposals to the top legislature, which is now
considering amending the Audit Law, which was adopted in 1994.
One proposal suggests the establishment of a committee that is comprised of
professionals who would review the audits.
The other puts forth the idea of inviting another agency to examine the
auditing office to ensure fairness.
The NAO, which Li calls the "watchdog of State property," has a
constitutional duty to find out how the public's money is being spent.
Last month, Li reported to the national legislature that public funds had
been misused by many ministries and commissions under the State Council last
year.
The report stirred a national "audit storm," attracting the attention of the
general public and Premier Wen Jiabao.
According to the report, 41 ministries and commissions appropriated as much
as 1.42 billion yuan (US$171.56 million) of funding, which had been dedicated to
special projects, for the construction of residential and office buildings for
their own use.
In response, Premier Wen urged all of the departments under the State
Council, governments at all levels and State-owned enterprises to learn from the
serious problems that the auditing office had highlighted.
Wen said all of the people who had violated the laws and regulations had to
be dealt with seriously.
Known as the "iron-handed auditor-general," Li says the NAO has received
strong support from the central government and top leadership.
The office's jurisdiction will be expanded to include all central government
departments, Communist Party of China (CPC) departments and State-funded
institutions, the China Youth Daily reported Li as saying on Tuesday.
That means departments and institutions of the CPC Central Committee, the top
legislature and the top political consultative body as well as the Supreme
People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate -- will all be audited.
Up until last year, the NAO only audited departments and institutions of the
State Council, the cabinet.