Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao welcomed a report by the country's
top auditor that disclosed embezzlement of public fund among some
central government departments, the People's Daily reported
Monday.
The premier called on all the departments under the State
Council, or the cabinet, governments at all levels and enterprises
to draw lessons from the serious problems uncovered by the National
Audit Office (NAO) in its auditing of the implementation of the
2003 central budget.
Addressing a national teleconference on national governance
according to law, which was held on June 28, Wen said all the
persons who violated the laws and regulations must be "dealt with
seriously."
The State Council would make a special report on what have been
done to settle these problems to the country's top legislature at
the end of this year, the premier told the participants.
The meeting of senior officials was held two days before the
country's first administrative permit law took effect, and full
text of the premier's speech was published by the newspaper, the
mouthpiece of the Communist Party of China.
On June 24, Auditor-General Li Jinhua told the national
legislature that embezzlement of public fund was found in 55
ministries and commissions under the State Council.
According to the auditing report, 41 ministries and commissions
impropriated as much as 1.42 billion yuan (171.56 million US
dollars) of fund dedicated to special projects for the construction
of residential and office buildings for their own use.
Citing as an example, Li said that since 1999, the State General
Administration of Sport embezzled 131 million yuan (15.83 million
US dollars) from the country's Olympic special funds for building
its own residential community, distributing subsidies to officials
and opening up companies.
The premier urged all government functionaries to cooperate with
auditing and supervision departments and improve their work.
He described administrative permit law as an important law
regulating "the common behavior" of the government, saying it will
have a significant and far-reaching impact on government
performances.
The law, which experts say reduces the government power, will
help increase the transparency of the administrative approval
procedures and cut the cost of administration.
The promulgation of the law will also help promote the rule of
law in China, which serves the purpose of building a people's
government, fighting bureaucracy and corruption and improving the
socialist market economic system, Wen said.
The premier urged efforts to build a government that works in
accordance with the law, and to this end, governments at all levels
should stick to the principles of putting the people first, making
timely amendments to the existing laws and regulations while
keeping them relatively stable, and maintaining the unity of
various laws and regulations to prevent various departments from
making their own regulations and even doing things in their own
ways.
A solid legal base must be required for any administrative
permits, he stressed.
Law enforcement must be strengthened so that government
departments and officials implement laws and regulations to the
letter, Wen said, promising that violators must be dealt with
according to law.
Governments at all levels should perfect the supervision
mechanism and encourage supervision on the use of administrative
power, including internal supervision and external supervision from
legislatures and the media.
A strict system of accountability should be formed and
departments and officials with powers should be responsible for
their wrongdoing, said Wen.
(People’s Daily July 5, 2004)