When China's Auditor-General, Liu Jiayi, submitted his annual report to the ninth session of the Standing Committee of the 11th National People's Congress, on June 24, 2009, his report was immediately criticized as vague and adding no new information.

"My ministry was criticized by National Audit Office (CNAO) this time round," an official told Time Weekly. But the name of the ministry is not mentioned in the audit report.

Xinhua News Agency reported that some members of the NPC Standing Committee, including Huang Zhendong, chairman of the Internal and Judicial Affairs Committee, N an Zhenzhong, vice chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, and Wu Xiaoling, vice chairman of the Financial and Economic Affairs Committee, criticized the report as "too mild." They were concerned by the failure to name government departments involved in embezzlement, illegal funding allocations, and other problems. In short, they said, the report did not put all the facts on the table, and in failing to do so, undermined the role of the CNAO.

A check by Time Weekly showed that the 13,000-word, 11-part, report was full of vague references. The word "some" appeared 20 times, "related departments" 14 times, "parts of" 19 times, and "individual institutions" 21 times. The report revealed that, "Thirty people involved in 116 cases of suspected criminal behavior investigated by discipline inspection and judicial organizations have been arrested, indicted and sentenced according to the law, and another 117 people have been punished according to administrative and Communist Party rules." But it gave no concrete details about who these people were, nor did it say which departments they worked for.

"Apart from State secrets, audit departments shouldn't hold anything back from the NPC Standing Committee, and they should avoid using vague expressions such as 'some individual departments' in their reports," said Nan Zhenzheng.

"It would improve financial discipline if auditors opened up all the information they find to society at large, because it puts departments under much heavier pressure if they face supervision from the public, rather than just having to make a statement to the State Council," said Wu Xiaoling.

The criticism of the audit report recalled the "audit storm" that followed then-Auditor General Li Jinhua's 2003 report to the NPC. Li openly referred to severe irregularities committed by ministries and other government agencies, and named the departments involved, which included the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Education, and the Ministry of Civil Affairs. The 2003 report described failings in straightforward terms such as "lack of effective management and supervision," rather than the mild rebukes seen previously. But since 2005, audit reports have reverted to type, and there have been no similar "audit storms."

Not everyone agrees with the critics of the 2008 report. Vice President of Nanjing Audit University, Shi Xian, said audit departments have to carry out their work in line with the law. The fact that the report does not disclose the names of offending departments will not stop criminal cases from going forward, she said. The purpose of audits is to identify problems and their underlying causes, and from this point of view, the CNAO is functioning well.

An audit official from Inner Mongolia told Time Weekly, "Audit storms initiated by audit departments did not get results. Problems like budgeting chaos and misappropriation of funds have continued in government departments at all levels over the past few years."

Since Liu Jiayi took office, the CNAO has concentrated on analyzing the root causes of problems rather than simply naming and shaming individual officials and departments. The 2008 audit revealed that 26.93 billion yuan of agricultural funds had been misappropriated by local governments. But unlike previous auditors who would have named the departments involved, Liu Jiayi drew attention to the financial plight of local governments that is the root cause of the problem. As Liu Jiayi put it, "CNAO must take on the role of the immune system" and attack the underlying disease, not simply draw attention to the symptoms.

(China.org.cn by Ma Yujia July 6, 2009)