The Guangzhou government has posted its annual accounts on the internet for the first time. The public can freely download the 2009 Guangzhou Municipal Department Budget from the Guangzhou Finance Bureau website. The document contains detailed budgets of 114 municipal government departments.

This is the first time that Guangzhou has made its annual accounts available to the public. According to Guangzhou Finance Bureau Chief Zhang Jieming, from now on, as soon as the government budget is approved by the People's Congress, it will be posted on the internet.

The public can click on the web address www.gzfinance.gov.cn/zwgk/sjtj/index.htm to inspect the specific budgets of 114 municipal departments. The contents of 2009 Guangzhou Municipal Department Budget are huge and detailed and include basic information about each department, budgetary revenues and expenditures and budget summary tables.

Chen Xue, a deputy to the Guangzhou Municipal People's Congress, said, "Revealing the budget to the public is a huge and significant step on the path of government information disclosure and it will satisfy the taxpayers' right to know what their money is being used for."

Director of fiscal and tax research at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences Yang Zhiyong said, "How should the public look at budget summary? The key point is to check whether the budget contains detailed and specific information for each item of revenue and expenditure, and whether it explains the different indices."

"Taking the initiative to open up the budget gives substance to the notion of public supervision and is also good for the government itself. The example of Guangzhou government should be followed across the whole country," he added.

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