Government information disclosure
According to the requirements of the Regulations of People’s Republic of China (PRC) Municipality on the Openness of Government Information (the State Council Order No.492, hereinafter referred to as the Regulations) and the Notice on Further Improving the Compilation and Release of the Annual Report on Government Information Disclosure (Guo Ban Kai Letter [2016] No.14), the 2015 annual report of the Ministry of Finance on government information disclosure is hereby released to the public. The full text includes an overview, proactive disclosure of government information, practical promotion of information disclosure in key areas, serious disclosure according to application, strengthening the construction of information disclosure platform, major problems and improvement measures, etc. The data statistics period is from January 1, 2015 to December 31, 2015. This report can be found on the portal website of the Ministry of Finance (www.mof.gov.cn, hereinafter referred to as the portal website). If you have any questions about this report, please contact the Financial Information Disclosure Office of the General Office of the Ministry of Finance (address: No.3, South Third Lane, Sanlihe, Xicheng District, Beijing, zip code: 100820, telephone number: 68551570, and fax).
I. Overview
In 2015, according to the Notice of the General Office of the State Council on Printing and Distributing the Main Points of Government Information Disclosure in 2015 (Guo Ban Fa [2015] No.22), the Ministry of Finance strengthened the construction of portal website columns and government WeChat platform, and made full use of portal website, WeChat WeChat official account, Ministry of Finance proclamation, news media, newspapers and periodicals yearbook and other forms to announce fiscal policies and financial data to the public in a timely and proactive manner. We will comprehensively promote the disclosure of information in key areas such as the central financial budget and final accounts, the use of financial funds, administrative examination and approval, and government procurement, conscientiously handle matters that are disclosed upon application, and actively do a good job in policy interpretation and response, further expanding and refining the scope and content of financial information disclosure, and enhancing the timeliness and influence of financial information disclosure.
II. Proactive disclosure of government information
The Ministry of Finance regards the voluntary disclosure of government information as an important means to promote administration according to law, financial management according to law and the construction of service-oriented institutions. For government information that is voluntarily disclosed, it shall be disclosed within 20 working days from the date when the information is formed or changed, such as newly issued financial regulations, rules and normative documents. The national financial revenue and expenditure, the national lottery sales and the economic operation of state-owned and state-controlled enterprises have been published on the portal website on a monthly basis. The timely disclosure of special work was realized: on March 24, 2015, the national land transfer revenue and expenditure in 2014 was disclosed, and on November 27, the national science and technology investment bulletin in 2014 was published. In 2015, more than 180,000 pieces of information were published through portals and mobile websites, and more than 2,100 pieces of information were published through government WeChat. The average daily page views of portals exceeded 2 million, and the number of government WeChat subscribers was nearly 500,000. Published 12 issues of the Ministry of Finance Proclamation and published 164 policy documents.
Third, effectively promote information disclosure in key areas
(1) Promoting the information disclosure of financial funds.
The first is the disclosure of the central government’s budget and final accounts. In 2014, on the basis of the classification of expenditure function items, in 2015, the basic expenditure was disclosed to the economic classification items. On the basis of the disclosure of special transfer payments to specific projects, the budget of tax refund, general transfer payments and special transfer payments in different regions has been increased. On the same day, 100 central departments made public the departmental budget and final accounts and the "three public" funds budget and final accounts. On March 17, 2015, the Ministry of Finance published the Report on the Implementation of the Central and Local Budgets in 2014 and the Draft Central and Local Budgets in 2015 through the portal website; On March 25th, the central budget for 2015 was made public; On June 29th, the Report on the Final Accounts of the Central Government in 2014 was made public; On July 10, the 2014 national financial final accounts were made public; On July 17th, the Ministry of Finance organized the central department to make public to the public for the first time a number of legal and social information such as final accounts data of expenditure economic classification subjects, summary of financial appropriation income and expenditure, government procurement expenditure, operating expenses of government agencies, and occupation of state-owned assets, which won favorable comments from public opinion and the public. On November 16th, the Notes on the Final Accounts of the National Social Insurance Fund in 2014 was published.
The second is the disclosure of the central "three public" funds budget and final accounts. Actively coordinate the central departments to do a good job in publicizing the budget and final accounts of the "three public" funds. In the budget and final accounts made public by the central government in 2015, the expenditure table of "three public funds" and the final account table of "three public funds" were set up respectively, which reflected in detail the budget arrangement of "three public funds" and the implementation of the previous year, and further refined the "official vehicle purchase and operation fee" into "official vehicle purchase fee" and "official vehicle operation fee", and made them public for the first time. On April 17, 2015, the budget implementation of the "three public funds" in 2014 and the budget arrangement in 2015 were made public through the portal website. On June 28th, with the final report of the central government in 2014, the expenditures of the "three public funds" at the central level in 2014 were disclosed.
The third is the disclosure of national budget implementation information and local budget and final accounts. Set up "financial data" and "national financial revenue and expenditure" columns on the portal website, timely release the implementation of the national financial budget on a monthly basis, and actively explain the hot issues that may cause social concern in the operation of revenue and expenditure, and respond to public concern. Make unified arrangements and requirements for the subject, time, form and content of local budget and final accounts disclosure, make special reports on local budgets and final accounts of provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government), and make them publicly available in the "Special Review" column of the portal website. The Notice on Special Inspection of the Disclosure of Local Budgets and Accounts (No.84 [2015] of Finance Supervision) was issued, and special inspections were carried out on the timeliness, completeness and detail of the disclosure of local budgets and accounts. According to the relevant work arrangement of China’s accession to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Special Data Dissemination Standard (SDDS), the Ministry of Finance began to publish the monthly revenue and expenditure, financing data and quarterly debt balance data of the central government on a regular basis in mid-2015.
(two) to promote the information disclosure of financial administrative examination and approval. First, a column "Reform of Administrative Examination and Approval System" was set up on the portal website, and information such as policies and systems related to administrative examination and approval, financial administrative examination and approval items, and the progress of the reform of the examination and approval system were published in a centralized manner, so as to facilitate the public to obtain administrative examination and approval information in a timely manner. Second, in accordance with the requirements of the State Council’s Decision on Cancelling and Adjusting a Batch of Administrative Approval Items (Guo Fa [2015] No.11), the information of administrative approval for canceling adjustment was released in time. In 2015, five administrative approval items involving the Ministry of Finance cancelled by the State Council were all made public on the portal website, which promoted the implementation and orderly connection of the cancellation of decentralization of approval items. The third is to actively promote the disclosure of relevant information on administrative licensing. Open the "Online Administrative Examination and Approval" column on the portal website, fully disclose the setting basis of administrative license, and promote the disclosure of information such as the conditions, procedures, quantity and the catalogue of materials to be submitted for the implementation of license. Some flowcharts of administrative licensing matters have been made public on the portal website.
(3) Promoting the disclosure of government procurement information. First, on February 25, 2015, the Key Points of Government Procurement in 2015 was published, so as to let the public know the key points of government procurement in time and enhance the transparency of government procurement. The second is to implement the relevant provisions of the Regulations on the Implementation of the Government Procurement Law and improve the specific operating system of government procurement information disclosure. On July 17, 2015, the Notice of the Ministry of Finance on Doing a Good Job in Government Procurement Information Disclosure (Caiku [2015] No.135) was issued, which clarified the disclosure scope of various government procurement information, standardized the disclosure channels, and refined the disclosure requirements, which effectively promoted the disclosure of government procurement information. The third is to strengthen the operation and management of China government procurement network, improve the column setting, and timely disclose government procurement information, especially the information on bidding, winning the bid and correcting. Standardize the release and update of government procurement information content.
(4) Promoting the information disclosure of national debt and local government bonds. First, in the "Treasury Bond Management" column of the portal website, at the beginning of the year, the annual book-entry treasury bond bidding and issuance rules, savings bonds issuance quota management measures, key-term treasury bonds, 50-year treasury bonds, and savings bonds issuance plans were announced, and the debt service information of annual treasury bonds and local government bonds paid by the Ministry of Finance was announced; At the end of each quarter, announce the issuance plan of all national debt for the next quarter; Announce the issuance notice of book-entry treasury bonds 1 or 5 working days before the tender, and announce the issuance announcement on the day of the end of the tender; Announce the announcement of savings bonds’s issuance 5 working days before the issuance. Second, based on the release of the yield curve of key-term government bonds in 2014, the three-month and six-month government bond yields will be released in 2015 to provide a benchmark for financial market pricing. The third is to publish the relevant institutional measures for the issuance management of local government bonds on the portal website, and further improve the information disclosure system of local government bonds, such as information disclosure before issuance, issuance results disclosure, duration information disclosure, major events disclosure, and debt service disclosure. Guide the financial departments of local governments to do a good job in information disclosure of local government bonds according to regulations.
(five) the publicity of the results of the NPC deputies’ suggestions and CPPCC members’ proposals. In 2015, the Ministry of Finance made great efforts to improve the working mechanism, strengthen supervision and supervision, and consider, deploy and promote the handling of NPC deputies’ proposals and CPPCC members’ proposals together with business work as an important means to promote financial work, an important platform to build consensus, and an important channel to enhance understanding and support. In 2015, the Ministry of Finance handled a total of 4,103 proposals, of which 2,506 were proposed by representatives and 489 were sponsored. There were 1597 members’ proposals and 333 sponsors; A total of 38 key proposals were identified and 15 related policies and measures were introduced. In the portal "Suggestions" column, 57 summaries of 2014 replies were published.
Four, seriously handle the disclosure according to the application.
Establish "centralized acceptance and decentralized handling; The government information of "one order to the end, the whole process of tracking" is handled in public according to the application mechanism, and the standardized workflow of six steps, such as application acceptance, elements review, distribution, tracking and coordination, information provision and data archiving, is strictly implemented, and a system for handling government information in public according to the application is developed, which digitizes all links of acceptance, transfer, reply and archiving to realize the whole process. In 2015, a total of 145 applications for government information disclosure were received, all of which were handled in accordance with relevant laws and regulations. Received 17 cases of information disclosure reconsideration with the Ministry of Finance as the respondent, and 13 cases of information disclosure litigation with the Ministry of Finance as the defendant and the specific behavior as the main body. This year, the Ministry of Finance did not collect fees from applicants for government information disclosure.
Five, strengthen the construction of information disclosure platform
(1) Improve the information content support system. Implement the "Opinions of the General Office of the State Council on Strengthening the Construction of Government Website Information Content" (Guo Ban Fa [2014] No.57) and the "Notice of the General Office of the State Council on Carrying out the First National Government Website Survey" (Guo Ban Fa [2015] No.15), pay close attention to the construction of portal website information content, and strive to improve the management level of portal website. Issued the "Notice on Further Improving the Information Content Construction of the Portal of the Ministry of Finance" to all units in the Ministry and local Commissioner’s Offices, strengthened the information release and update of the portal, and standardized the information release process of the portal. Earnestly carry out the general survey of the portal website and the China municipal government procurement network, do a good job in the investigation and information reporting, and earnestly do a good job in rectification. A total of 276 invalid links and 12 "sleep" columns were cleared in the sub-stations run by departments and commissioners.
(2) Improve the website information collection mechanism. Adhere to the monthly statistical bulletin portal departments, the Commissioner’s office, the provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) finance department (bureau) sub-channel content security evaluation score, enhance the enthusiasm of each unit to upload information actively. The Ministry of Finance portal website sub-channels of some key information release schedule in 2015 was issued. On this basis, the information release task was decomposed into months, and letters were sent to various departments at the beginning of each month, and checked and coordinated at the end of each month, so as to effectively strengthen the organization and guidance for the information release of sub-channels of various departments of the portal website.
(3) Strict information release review. Establish an information release mechanism of "clear division of labor, clear rights and responsibilities, multi-person review and step-by-step control", and strictly review information release to ensure timely and accurate release of authoritative information. For key information such as financial news and photo news, the policy, text and figures are strictly controlled, and sensitive matters are repeatedly communicated with relevant units for revision.
(4) Strengthen financial news propaganda. Pay attention to the use of financial news publicity platform to improve the effect of financial information disclosure. Considering and arranging fiscal policy interpretation and fiscal policy formulation synchronously, the leaders of the organization department attended more than 30 press conferences (including briefings), interviews with Chinese government websites and joint interviews with journalists, organized relevant departments to hold press conferences (including briefings) and carry out policy interpretation for more than 40 times, and publicized the background, objectives and main points of the fiscal policy in various forms such as digitalization, charts and diagrams. Carefully use the international financial conferences attended by the Ministry of Finance, such as the 48th annual meeting of the ADB Board of Directors, the signing ceremony of the articles of association of the AIIB, the seventh special meeting of China-US Strategic and Economic Dialogue, and the G20 meeting of finance ministers and central bank governors, to be interviewed by the international mainstream media on issues of international concern, to publicize the healthy development of China’s economy, and to announce the development and achievements of China’s fiscal reform.
VI. Main Problems and Improvement Measures
In 2015, the work of financial information disclosure has achieved certain results, but there are still some problems such as the scope of disclosure needs to be expanded, the content of disclosure needs to be refined, and the construction of open platform needs to be strengthened. In 2016, the Ministry of Finance will focus on the following aspects:
(1) Further expand the scope of financial information disclosure. Conscientiously implement the "Opinions on Comprehensively Promoting the Openness of Government Affairs", adhere to the principle of openness as the norm and non-openness as the exception, closely focus on economic and social development and people’s concerns, continuously expand the scope of financial information disclosure, and strengthen financial information release and policy interpretation.
(two) to further improve the public budget and final accounts. Timely disclosure of reports and statements (except confidential information) on budgets, budget adjustments, budget implementation and final accounts approved by the People’s Congress and its Standing Committee according to law; All expenditures on budget and final accounts are disclosed to functional classification item-level subjects (except classified information) and to economic classification subjects (except classified information) according to regulations; Make public the tax refund, general transfer payment and special transfer payment in different regions, and make public the budget and final accounts of the next special transfer payment according to specific projects; All departments and units shall make public final accounts, indicating the number and number of delegations going abroad on business, the number and quantity of official vehicles purchased, and the batch and number of domestic official receptions.
(three) to further promote the disclosure of administrative examination and approval information. Timely disclose the application conditions, quantity, procedures and time limit of licensing matters, as well as all materials and information to be submitted when applying. Timely public cancellation, decentralization and implementation of administrative examination and approval project information.
(four) to further promote the disclosure of government procurement information. Do a good job in the information disclosure related to the whole process of government procurement, and disclose the overall situation of government procurement budget arrangement and procurement implementation in accordance with the requirements of public financial budget and final accounts. Make the disclosure of government procurement information an important part of supervision and inspection, and investigate the responsibility of purchasers and procurement agencies who fail to release government procurement project information according to law.
(V) Further strengthen the construction of the financial information disclosure platform. Strengthen the construction of the standard system of information disclosure catalogue, further improve the column setting of portal website, improve the mechanism of information content collection, review and release, and optimize the information query method. Make full use of new media such as WeChat WeChat official account to broaden the channels of information dissemination, enrich the content of WeChat information, and innovate the display forms of WeChat to meet the diverse information needs of different groups.