With the enactment of laws regarding government procurement, to be implemented in January next year, China’s legal system will gradually standardize regulations in this area, Vice Minister of Finance Xiao Jie noted at the national government’s procurement working conference.
It’s reported that China has set out laws to improve and standardize government procurement. Over last few years, the Ministry of Finance has successfully drawn up a series of rules and regulations, such as Provisional Regulations on the Management of Government Procurement and Provisional Regulations on the Management of Government Procurement Tendering and Bidding, which stipulate information release details, capital appropriation and operational procedures for government procurement. The Government Procurement Law, to take effect from January 1, 2003, will bring government procurement procedures in line with management laws.
A supervisory management system has also been set up requiring financial departments, discipline inspection departments and auditing departments to divide work among them, help one another carry out functions and supervise each other’s activities. Transparency developments have also made a breakthrough. Rules concerning information and regulations on government procurement and bidding will be brought out into the open by media which will lay the foundations for the “sunshine project” in this area.
Xiao Jie noted that the implementation of government procurement regulations have expanded to include the operations of the county level. With the range of purchases continually extending, the rate of procurement has been increasing rapidly, from 13 billion yuan (US$1.6 billion) in 1999 to 32.8 billion yuan (US$4 billion) in 2000 and 65.3 billion (US$8 billion) in 2001. This year, government procurement expenditure will exceed 100 billion yuan (US$12.1 billion).
The implementation of government procurement regulations has already delivered some success. Every year the government saves about 11 percent of procurement capital. In 2001, the total amount of capital saved was more than 7.8 billion yuan (US$944 million). Xiao Jie said, with increasing transparency and improved government procurement systems, anti-corruption measures will strengthen and improve.
(china.org.cn by Li Xiao November 21, 2002)
