Central gov't departments fail to disclose expenses

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Almost all China's central government departments, excluding the Ministry of Science and Technology (MST), failed to publish their expenses for "overseas trips, vehicles and receptions" by the end of June, a deadline set by the State Council, or cabinet.

The central government's "opaque" spending has exacerbated public concerns about potential corruption and extravagancy on the part of officials.

Since May, the State Council has repeatedly called on its ministries to reduce "squandering practices" and make their fiscal information public in more areas and "provide greater details," especially regarding using funds for the "three public consumptions" -- overseas travel, receptions and official cars, since excessive expenditures on the three items have long been criticized as "sources of corruption and waste."

However, only the MST echoed the central government's call to keep people informed about how public funds are spent, with other central departments citing "technical problems," which many netizens dismissed as an "excuse."

The MST published its 2011 budget in April, with detailed explanations to address public concerns on the "three public consumptions," on which the budget says the ministry plans to spend about 40.2 million yuan (6.18 million U.S. dollars).

Further, the Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE), a major government think tank, joined the MST in publishing its 2010 expenditures on the three items as well as its 2011 budget for overseas travels, on the academy's website Wednesday afternoon.

Although its published 2011 budget did not cover all three items and came late, the disclosure was still "a positive response" to the central government's directive, a senior CAE official told Xinhua on Thursday.

According to the CAE, it spent nearly 4.9 million yuan on the three items last year, a relatively small amount, and allocated about 1.63 million yuan for overseas trips in 2011, down more than 30 percent from that of 2010.

Last week, the top legislature approved the final account of 2010 central spending, and for the first time, it included a special section on expenses of the central government's "three public consumptions."

Statistics provided by Minister of Finance Xie Xuren showed the central departments and government-owned public institutions spent 9.47 billion yuan on the three items in 2010.

Prof. Wang Jingbo of China University of Political Science and Law said most central departments were unwilling to publish detailed expenses on the three items, as they feared such disclosures would be "questioned by the public."

Meanwhile, many Chinese have accused the government of deliberately omitting information regarding their extravagant spending of public funds on receptions, official cars, or other personal expenses in their fiscal statement.

In mid-April, an online posting revealed that the Guangdong branch of Sinopec, a well-known state-owned petroleum refiner enterprise, spent more than 1 million yuan on expensive liquor.

In order to curb official extravagance, Prof. Wang said the central departments should "act as a good example" for local governments in publishing "detailed" fiscal information.

China issued a regulation on government transparency in 2008, that requests administrative agencies to disclose certain information that involve citizens' interests.

Since then, information about the state's central budget and expenditures of over 70 central government departments have been made public.

In March, Premier Wen Jiabao urged the country's government agencies to reduce administrative expenses, including cutting spending on overseas business trips, reforming the system for government service cars, and cutting the number of meetings and documents.

China's crackdown on various forms of extravagant spending by officials saved the country 5.7 billion yuan last year, according to the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the Communist Party of China.