China will speed up cost-effectiveness audit to rein in the
waste of resources though achievements have been scored in budget
audit over the past few years, Li Jinhua, the top auditor of the
country, has said.
"In this regard, auditors will evaluate the consumption of
resources and results of projects and put forward suggestions and
proposals for the government to deal with problems found during the
auditing," said Li, auditor general of the National Audit Office,
during a recent interview with Xinhua.
After auditing 40 departments of the central government,
auditors concluded that the number of cases involving
irregularities was on the decrease while budget management was
improving, according to Li.
However, although quite a few projects were built legally, they
could not produce sound economic returns and social benefit as
expected, and had even resulted in a waste of resources, capital
and manpower, which could hardly be found during financial audit,
he said.
"Economic losses caused by waste is really a problem as serious
as embezzlement and corruption," said Li, who admitted government
departments had improved the use of budget funds under increasingly
strict auditing over the past years.
"How to save resources and achieve the best possible results at
the cost of the least possible resources is an important task
before us."
Li said his office will intensify efforts to audit the
cost-effectiveness of projects in the future and try to place equal
importance to both budget audit and cost-effectiveness audit at the
end of 2007.
However, what auditors can do is to investigate and make
suggestions, and "it's up to policy-makers to decide whether the
suggestions or proposals are feasible," said Li.
On the whole, the purpose of cost-effectiveness audit is to help
improve management and increase benefit, and Li believes they will
win understanding and support from those being audited.
Li is praised by many as "national hero" as he led his
colleagues in finding problems during the auditing of some major
projects such as the Three Gorges Project, natural forest
protection project, the budget of the Beijing Organizing Committee
for the 2008
Olympic Games and public reserve fund for housing.
Observers say to intensify auditing to prevent waste of
resources is important as China needs to use its limited resources
wisely to back up its fast growing growth on the road to build a
harmonious society.
(Xinhua News Agency January 2, 2006)