A major charitable organization has announced that it will enhance its credibility and transparency in an effort to solicit more donations.

"Low transparency of charitable institutions is very likely to elicit corruption," said Jiang Shangzhou, chairman of the China Foundation for Disabled Persons.

"Our foundation has put forward a new working plan for the future."

The group is a non-profit organization taking care of the country's more than 60 million disabled people.

To earn more public trust and create increased transparency, the foundation has hired PricewaterhouseCoopers, a reputable international accounting firm, to do its auditing.

Details of each donation will be made accessible to the public and the foundation's assets will be made public on a monthly basis, Jiang said.

The number of members on the governing board of the foundation was reduced to less than 25 on Wednesday at a re-election conference.

It is made up of enterprise donors, non-governmental organization (NGO) experts, media workers and other volunteers, rather than government officials.

The organization's pledge comes after the release of a series of regulations by the Ministry of Civil Affairs earlier this year and in 2004.

These regulations are designed to bring China's 1,060 foundations under public supervision and make them more transparent to attract more donations.

Only a few years ago, allegations of waste and mismanagement of charity funds plagued some well-known Chinese non-profit organizations, dealing a huge blow to charitable initiatives.

The problem, along with a discouraging tax policy and an undeveloped awareness of philanthropy, is viewed as the main reason that dampens the public's passion for charitable activities.

However, Jiang said no misuse of funds has been found in his organization since it was established in 1984, even though the 3.34 billion yuan (US$412 million) of donations generated in the past 22 years might have been used inefficiently.

Meanwhile, Jiang blamed the scant supervision from the authorities for the low transparency of many foundations.

He added that most monetary donations his foundation receives are employed in huge projects such as the Changjiang New Millennium Programme, which involves education and rehabilitation for the disabled, and a programme called Help Disabled Children for School.

According to Wang Ming, professor and director with the Research Centre of Beijing-based Tsinghua University, charitable foundations in China face a scarcity of external supervision. Most foundations operate with public funding,

He said that authorities are short of money, proper personnel and measures to form an effective supervision mechanism, which is required by the law.

"It will cost a lot to effectively supervise non-profit organizations," he said. "But the government doesn't even have a separate budget for that."

Administrative personnel are also in short supply. Only about 700 people from across the country are charged with overseeing approximately 300,000 NGOs.

"To be fair, foundations in China have done a fine job," he contended.

"(Running a foundation) is like running a house," Jiang told China Daily. "When there are no visitors, you might only clean the house once a week.

"But now it will be frequently visited, and we will have to tidy it up every day to make sure it is very clean."

(China Daily March 17, 2006)