"Whose pockets have my donations fallen into?" The query usually
getting average Chinese nowhere is becoming easy to answer.
During a press conference Thursday on donation management held by
the Ministry of Civil Affairs, officials from east China's Jiangxi
Province and northern Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, provided a
detailed account of the management and utilization of donations
received from Beijingers.
The Chinese capital of Beijing has been designated since 1996 as
the funding source of disaster and poverty relief programs for
less-developed Inner Mongolia and Jiangxi.
China has formed nine such "donor groups" whose purpose is to
provide timely assistance to regions in need.
Yang Yanyin, vice-minister of civil affairs, said, "Keeping donors
informed about the use of their contributions is no longer handling
a kindle to the sun, but a legal obligation."
According to a notice to reassure the public issued jointly by the
Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and the State
Council in February on the guarantee of basic living conditions of
the most vulnerable, donors are entitled to know how their
donations are spent.
Qiu Qiang, deputy head of the civil affairs department of Jiangxi
Province, has underlined that making this financial information
public is crucial to the government's policy of encouraging regular
donations.
Most of the donations made in China are related to disaster relief
aid drives or "special days" such as International Children's Day
and are initiated by charities or governmental organizations.
China, with its vast population of 1.3 billion and its
vulnerability to every kind of natural adversities except volcanic
eruptions, a regular donating system is crucial to the quality of
disaster relief and to the maintenance of relief materials.
The country currently has more than 18,000 donor centers spread
over its land area of 9.6 million square kilometers.
In
northeastern Liaoning Province, the home of a social security
system reform pilot project, approximately 93.8 percent of
neighborhood committees have donor centers.
In
municipalities like Beijing and Shanghai, donation centers have
been set up in government executive departments, large enterprises,
residential quarters, major supermarkets and shopping malls.
Even in Zhongnanhai, the headquarters of the Chinese central
leadership, there are two separate donor centers for officials, one
for the CPC Central Committee, and the other for the State Council,
China's governing body.
This year, contributions from high-profile Chinese residents have
been continuously funneled to areas like needy Guizhou and Jiangxi,
both provinces stricken by either poverty or natural
adversities.
"I
have never expected that President Jiang Zemin and other ranking
Party and government officials, who have to attend to numerous
state affairs, would have time to show their loving attention and
concern for us," exclaimed a 35-year-old woman farmer named Huang
Suzhen of the Mayuan Village at the city of Jinggangshan, a
revolutionary base area during China's revolutionary war years in
the late 1920s, 1930s and 1940s.
She recently received two packages of clothing, a quilt and 500
yuan (about US$60) in cash from the Zhongnanhai donor centers.
Instilling the concept of donating to the needy people is not as
simple as publicizing the example of China's ranking officials.
"The crux of matter is building up confidence in the donor system
to ensure fairness and justice," said Yang.
Today, endeavors have been launched to inform the public about the
utilization of donations. Such information can be found and learned
from bulletin boards of donating stations, distribution centers, in
newspapers, on radio and on television.
Some local governments have even produced brief television programs
to provide relevant information about the allocation of donated
goods, materials and funds.
In
Inner Mongolia, to safeguard against embezzlement, local civil
affairs departments have adopted a unanimous regulation specifying
the time and place of distribution and establishing a special squad
to supervise the job.
In
order to receive donor aid, a qualified recipient should present
his or her identity card or household registration, and a civil
affairs official must fill out a distribution notice and a
registration form.
Recipients must maintain a duplicate copy of the forms for any
possible check and verification.
Subsequently, all details relevant to the total of donations sent
to the region, every recipient's name and the specific quantity of
goods and money distributed must be posted on bulletin boards.
Fortunately, the strict procedures have produced positive results.
In Inner Mongolia, over 18.5 million people have so far made
donations, far more than the number of those in need which is
approximately 11 million.
Xing Gang, a local civil affairs official, said, "The strong level
of regular donations has filled the gap in relief funds and has
helped to guarantee the basic living standards of the
vulnerable."
According to the official, whenever donated funds are used to
purchase relief materials, a public bidding mechanism is
introduced, including the participants of prosecutors and
auditors.
In
early October, a new donation drive was initiated by the Ministry
of Civil Affairs to ease the neediness in both cities and
villages.
More than 2.02 million items of clothing and quilts are being sent
to northwest China's Gansu Province and to north China's Hebei
Province.
"Only when our donation management has become transparent and
standardized will regular donations become an instituted custom for
the people in China," she said.
(Xinhua News
Agency November 2, 2002)