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Govts have to make budgets public

(China Daily)
Updated: 2009-10-29 08:18

Governments are not supposed to keep their financial budgets secret. But the Shanghai financial bureau has done exactly that, which is against the spirit of law, as well as democratic political ethics, says an article in China Youth Daily. Excerpts:

Li Detao, a public budget observation volunteer, reportedly asked the Shanghai and Guangzhou finance bureaus to make their budgets public. The Guangzhou financial bureau accepted his plea and published the information on the Internet. But the Shanghai financial bureau refused to do, claiming it to be a "state secret".

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The central government did issue a temporary ordinance on state secrets in 1951, which defined government budgets as a kind of state secret. But the ordinance was abolished on May 1, 1989, when the Secret Act came into effect. Since then there has been no legal basis for governments to regard their financial budgets as a state secret.

Making financial budgets public is common practice across the world and one of the traits of democratic politics. At the core China's public financial reform is the establishment of sound public budget policies.

Public supervision over budgets can effectively prevent back-door dealings in governmental financial operations. So what the Shanghai financial bureau has done is against financial reform.

Denying the public budgetary information is a deviation from political ethics. Government funding is actually taxpayers' money, which the authorities collect to support public utilities and provide public services. Hence, the public has the right to know how it is distributed and spent.

Although the Code of Practice on Access to Government Information does not direct authorities to make their financial budgets public, it is important to know such policies only give the exceptions, that is, what should be kept secret. They rarely say what should be made public. Which means the public has the right to all information other than those the law doesn't allow to be released.

(China Daily 10/29/2009 page9)