Thecover.cn:

This question goes to Mr. Wang Lujin. We know that financial auditing is the fundamental responsibility of auditing organs. Could you please give a detailed introduction of the achievements that the auditing organs have made in promoting the reform of the finance and tax systems, improving the efficiency of the use of the fiscal funds, as well as the efforts it has made to ensure the implementation of the eight-point decision on improving Party and government conduct and to ensure the government keeps its belt tightened? Thank you.

Wang Lujin:

Thank you for your question. The priority of the audit authorities is the auditing of public finance.As such, financial auditing is the most important task for which the National Audit Office always strives. Since the 18th CPC National Congress, following the decisions and deployments made by the CPC Central Committee and the State Council, auditing organs have been committed to the prominent task of ensuring genuine, legitimate, and efficient financial revenue and expenditure and stepped up efforts to enhance and improve fiscal audit, conduct audit-based oversight, and promote the reform and progress of the finance and tax systems. I'd like to brief you on the following three aspects:

First, we have endeavored to boost the fiscal system reform. Aiming to put in place a comprehensive, procedure-based, transparent budget system that follows well-conceived standards and imposes effective constraints, we have strengthened budget performance and audit of draft final accounts. We have also expanded audits of department budget implementation and strengthened the audit of prominent and special funds. By doing so, we have been able to supervise the entire government budget system, which includes budget allocation, approval, implementation, revision, and the compilation of final accounts so as to ensure a complete and unified government budget system. With the aim of establishing a relationship between the central and local finances built upon clearly defined powers and responsibilities, appropriate financial resource allocation, and greater balance between regions, we have motivated the central and local governments and promoted audit of transfer payments, wherein we have endeavored to ensure that the items eligible for transfer payments are established properly; that the share of fiscal funds between the central and local governments are rational; that the fiscal funds are allocated correctly; that the approval of the budget and appropriation of funds are timely; and that the funds are used efficiently and consistently with compliance requirements. Such efforts are conducive to balancing financial resources and basic public services among regions.

Second, we have made great efforts to improve the efficiency of the proactive fiscal policies. In order to ensure the implementation of proactive fiscal policies, we have strengthened the audit of performance management of fiscal funds, the process of putting idle budgetary funds to good use, and the issuance of local government special-purpose bonds in a bid to improve the efficiency of funds. I'd like to introduce our work in two aspects: The first is about the audit of direct finances. The central government has established a system for the transfer of finances in a bid to allocate the funding to local governments directly. In this regard, auditing organs have inspected every single step throughout the entire process over the past few years, including the allocation, the appropriation, as well as the management and the use of the funds in order to ensure that such fiscal funds will be allocated and distributed in time; that the use of the funds is target-oriented; and that it will be managed in a safe and efficient manner. According to the audit results, the system has enabled fiscal funds to be allocated more quickly, distributed in a targeted way, and supervised more effectively. It has played an important role in advancing stability on the six fronts and security in the six areas, ensuring economic stability and social development. The second is about the audit of the special-purpose bonds. We have strengthened the audit of local government special-purpose bonds in terms of their lend, use, management, and repay so as to ensure the management of special bonds more standard in terms of its quota allocation, declaration, and release, as well as its use and debt repayment. It is also conducive to increasing the benefits brought about by the use of special-purpose bonds, which will thereby further leverage the positive role of special-purpose bonds in improving the efficiency of proactive fiscal policies and expanding effective investments.

Third, we have made great efforts to ensure the implementation of the eight-point decision on improving Party and government conduct and ensure the government keeps its belt tightened. Since the 18th CPC National Congress, the audit authorities has made the implementation of the eight-point decision on improving Party and government conduct and the requirement of tightening the belt as a top priority of the audit-based oversight, investigating, and taking stern action in practices regarding the construction of new government buildings and vanity projects in violation of regulations, as well as the release of subsidies in violation of regulations and mismanagement of spending on official overseas visits, official vehicles, and official hospitality.

For example, the General Office of the State Council reported in October of last year some cases of the construction of new government buildings and vanity projects in violation of regulations in some regions despite their financial situation. It urged localities and departments at all levels to raise awareness and conduct self-inspection and self-correction to learn a lesson, demanding them to strictly enforce financial and economic discipline and tighten up accountability for overseeing discipline compliance, which thereby has created a deterrent. Going forward, we will ramp up efforts to investigate similar problems.

Thank you.

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