The Chinese people were excited by the release of the
government's annual audit report a few years ago, regarding it as a
step forward in terms of government transparency and an opportunity
to hold corrupt officials to account in front of the whole
nation.
But the report is not so inspiring as it was because similar
misconducts by government agencies have kept reappearing year after
year.
Seven billion yuan (US$910 million) was embezzled by central
government departments last year and another 37 billion yuan was
misused.
Twenty-eight cases had been handed over to the police and
supervision departments by the end of June, with only 35.9 billion
yuan retrieved. It is still not clear how many officials have been,
or will be, punished.
The "audit storm" staged last year led to the arrest,
prosecution or imprisonment of 94 people involved in 106 major
cases. The figure is of little weight when you consider the
billions of yuan that were misused in 2005.
A major problem is that these audit reports target mainly
government departments rather than individual officials. This is
the very loophole the greedy rush to take advantage of as costs of
violating the law are low and chances of being landed with a
serious penalty are small.
It is right that the National Audit Office should inform the
public of corruption within the government but this is not enough.
The ordinary Chinese people are more concerned about how these
crimes are dealt with and whether or not perpetrating officials
will be brought to justice.
The State Council recently gave an order to retrieve all misused
funds and to punish all those responsible in line with the law.
This lofty-sounding deterrence is all very well but it leads to
the following questions: Do we have enough laws to ensure every
perpetrator is penalized? Or are people simply flouting the law and
getting away with it?
Credit should be given to Shenzhen's city government which took
the lead in issuing a new rule earlier this month that would hold
chief officials accountable for financial misconduct in their
departments and subsidiaries. Why haven't all the other local
authorities followed suit?
Making top officials aware that any transgression will put their
political careers at stake will go some way to ensuring their
motivation to discipline themselves and their departments, as well
as strengthening budgetary controls.
(Xinhua News Agency July 20, 2007)