Ministry of Supervision, Ministry of Civil Affairs, Ministry of Finance and National Audit Office

June 23, 2008

Since the occurrence of the Wenchuan earthquake in Sichuan Province on May 12, the Central and local governments have put in large quantities of capital and goods and materials with full support from all the democratic political parties, people's organizations and all circles of society. Compatriots of Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan and overseas Chinese have vied with one another to contribute and donate money and goods. The international community has actively lent a helping hand. The leaders of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the State Council have attached great importance to the management and use of these quake rescue and relief funds and goods, and issued a series of important directives. All the relevant central and local government departments have thoroughly implemented the Central Government's arrangements and requirements, and done a lot of effective and efficient work in strengthening the supervision and management of the quake rescue and relief funds and goods. Obvious progresses have been made.

I. Setting-up of supervision and inspection system. Approved by the Central Government, a leading group in charge of supervising and inspecting the use of quake rescue and relief funds and goods has been established. The head of the leading group is He Yong, member of the Secretariat of the CPC central Committee and Vice Secretary of Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of CPC (CCDI); two deputy heads are Ma Wen, Vice Secretary of CCDI and Minister of Supervision, and Liu Jiayi, the Auditor General. The group consists of leaders in charge from the CCDI, the Ministry of Supervision, the Ministry of Civil Affairs, the Ministry of Finance, and the National Audit Office. The leading group has set up its office in the Ministry of Supervision with Wang Wei, member of the standing committee of CCDI and Vice Minister of Supervision, as the chief. Sichuan, Gansu and Shaanxi Provinces have so far also established leading groups in charge of supervising and checking the quake rescue and relief funds and goods with the Secretary of the Provincial Disciplinary Inspection Commission of the CPC as the group leader. Many quake-stricken prefectures, counties, townships, towns and villages have as well established corresponding leading organs and working mechanisms. The relevant ministries and commissions of the State Council and some non-quake-hit provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government have also set up leading organs and working mechanisms to strengthen the supervision and management of the quake rescue and relief funds and goods allocated by the government or contributed and donated by society. This has provided an organizational guarantee for the strengthening of the supervision and inspection work.

II. Further improvement of the relevant rules and regulations. The CCDI, the Ministry of Supervision, the Ministry of Civil Affairs, the Ministry of Finance, and the National Audit Office issued on May 20 the Notice on Strengthening the Supervision and Management of the Quake Rescue and Relief Funds and Goods. In order to further itemize the supervision and management measures, relevant departments have quickly formulated and published five urgently-needed regulatory documents, namely, Notice on Strengthening the Management and Use of the Funds and Goods Contributed and Donated for the Wenchuan Earthquake Rescue and Relief Work formulated by the Ministry of Finance and issued in the name of the General Office of the State Council, Regulations on the Punishment of Acts in Violation of Laws and Discipline in the Management and Use of the Quake Rescue and Relief Funds and Goods issued by the CCDI and the Ministry of Supervision, Urgent Notice on Strengthening Procurement Management of the Wenchuan Earthquake Relief Goods issued by the Ministry of Finance, Distribution Measures for the Life Support Goods in the Wenchuan Earthquake Rescue and Relief Work and Information Disclosure Measures on the Management and Use of the Wenchuan Earthquake Rescue and Relief Funds and Goods issued by the Ministry of Civil Affairs.

The State Council published on June 8 the Regulations on Post-Wenchuan Earthquake Reconstruction , making stipulations in four areas on the supervision and management of the contributed and donated funds and goods and on the post-quake reconstruction funds and goods. In addition, relevant departments have extracted and summarized relevant laws and regulations on the supervision and management of the quake relief funds and goods and published them via the Internet. The quake-hit areas and the relevant departments of the Central Government have formulated in light of their own practical situations a series of regulatory documents concerning the raising, distributing, transferring, using and supervising of the quake rescue and relief funds and goods. The formulation, issuance and publication of the above-mentioned documents have provided clear-cut basis for standardizing the management, use, supervision and inspection of the quake rescue and relief funds and goods.

III. Strict implementation of the supervisory rules and regulations. The relevant departments and local governments have strengthened the supervision and management of the quake rescue and relief funds and goods, and made an effective and sound use of them in strict accordance with the rules and regulations. For example, the Ministry of Civil Affairs has established a special financial account for the management of the contributed and donated funds and offered a receipt uniformly printed by the Ministry of Finance to the contributors and donators. It has thoroughly carried out The Central Government's Measures for the Management and Use of the Quake Relief Goods in the procurement of the quake relief goods. Relief goods are selected and purchased in strict accordance with the criteria and procurement procedures. The Ministry of Finance has transferred special funds in urgent need in accordance with the principle of "following the required examination and approval procedures while allowing special treatment of urgent cases." It has strengthened communication and coordination with the relevant ministries and commissions, strictly followed the approval procedures and carefully examined and verified the account to ensure that the funds can be quickly transferred under strict supervision. The quake-hit areas, the grass-roots units in particular, have strictly followed the procedures of reception, distribution and allotment of the rescue and relief funds to ensure clear accounts and standard operations. For example, to better distribute the quake relief goods, Sichuan Province has set up quake rescue and relief goods allotment centers for the registration, storage and organized distribution of received goods. It has also set up conspicuous signboards outside the distribution spots to facilitate the government's management and people's supervision.

IV. Timely audit of the quake rescue and relief funds. The National Audit Office has quickly made plans for the audit of the post-quake relief funds and goods. It selected some backbone auditors from the special offices stationed in Kunming and Chongqing and from ten audit bureaus stationed in different Central Government Departments and sent them for an overall audit of the reception, registration and distribution of quake relief funds and goods managed by the relevant ministries, commissions and seriously-quake-hit areas. So far over 8,000 auditors all over the country have been conducting the audit of 18 ministries at the Central Government level, over 240 units at provincial level, more than 370 units at prefecture and municipal levels and more than 2,500 units at county level. 2,300 of the auditors have been conducting the audit in the seriously-quake-hit areas in Sichuan , Gansu and Shaanxi Provinces . The National Audit Office has determined different key targets for auditing based on the respective situations of the quake-hit areas and non quake-hit areas. The audit work is focused on the raising and distribution of the contributed and donated funds and goods in the non quake-hit areas and lightly-quake-hit areas while in the seriously-quake-hit areas, the emphasis is put on the audit of management and use of the quake relief funds and goods. The audit organs have established an audit report system and a public announcement system. Sichuan, Gansu and Shaanxi provinces submit the audit reports to the National Audit Office once every week. The first public announcement on the audit work of the quake relief funds and goods was made to the public by the National Audit Office on June 12.

V. Comprehensive supervision and inspection in place. The CCDI and the Ministry of Supervision organized two special supervision groups consisting of their working staff and some specially invited supervisors and sent them to Sichuan and the relevant Ministries and Departments of the Central Government to supervise and direct the management of the quake rescue and relief funds and goods. The National Audit Office sent three groups to Sichuan, Shaanxi and Gansu provinces respectively to give on-the-spot supervision and guidance. The Ministry of Civil Affairs and the Ministry of Finance sent supervision groups separately or along with the relevant departments to the quake-hit areas to supervise the management work. Sichuan province has openly recruited 308 social supervisors and orderly organized them to participate in the management and supervision of the quake relief funds and goods, thus making the supervision and inspection work more transparent. All the other areas and the relevant departments have also increased the transparency of the government affairs. Open to supervision from all sectors of society, they voluntarily disclosed the sources, quantities, types and destinations of the quake relief funds and goods, and timely published the relief and aftercare policies and the distribution of the quake relief funds.

VI. Investigation of discipline-breaching and law-breaking cases. In order to facilitate the public's supervision, the Ministry of Supervision, the National Audit Office and Sichuan Province have set up reporting hotlines to exclusively deal with offence reports concerning the management and use of the quake rescue and relief funds and goods. The discipline inspection organs of the quake-hit areas have established a quick investigation mechanism to probe into issues involving the immediate interests of the people and of focused attention of society. Relevant findings are publicized in a timely manner. For example, Sichuan province carried out a thorough investigation into the illegal setting up of quake-relief camps in non-quake-hit areas reported by the media and timely corrected the misappropriate use of such kind.

The quake rescue and relief work is now entering into the early preparatory period for the resettlement of quake victims and post-quake restoration and reconstruction. The quake relief funds and goods shall be allocated to the quake-hit areas in a more concentrating way with enhanced monitoring, management and supervision mechanisms. The relevant functional departments shall, under the principle that the department in charge shall be responsible for its work, strictly perform their respective duties, closely cooperate with each other, and further strengthen the supervision and management of the quake relief funds and goods to ensure the effective use of the quake relief funds and goods.

Firstly, we shall further highlight the priority. According to the shift of focus on the quake rescue and relief work, the supervision and management of the funds and goods for the resettlement of quake victims and post-quake restoration and reconstruction should be emphasized. We shall strengthen the supervision and inspection of the key areas, the key departments and units and key procedures in time and thus ensure a maximum use of the quake relief funds and goods.

Secondly, we shall further improve the rules and regulations. The various rules and regulations on the management and use of the quake rescue and relief funds should be strictly carried out. At the same time we shall formulate and implement new rules and regulations in compliance with the latest situation and perfect the internal control mechanism.

Thirdly, we shall further increase the transparency of the supervision and management work. Under the principle of transparent publicity, the relevant functional departments and the local governments shall timely inform the public of the management and use of the quake relief funds and goods, and accept the supervision from the people. The audit organs shall regularly publish the audit reports of the funds and goods used in post-quake restoration and reconstruction and publish a final audit report at the end of the auditing work.

Fourthly, we shall intensify the investigation of cases in violation of laws and discipline. Effective measures should be taken to get more clues for the investigation, and problems reported by the people and disclosed by the media should be carefully examined in order to discern any violations. The discipline inspection organs shall quickly investigate any act in violation of the laws and discipline in accordance with Regulations on the Punishment of Acts in Violation of Laws and Discipline in the Management and Use of the Quake Rescue and Relief Funds and Goods. Cases suspected of constituting a crime shall be transferred to the judicial department for prosecution. Typical cases shall be made public.

(China Development Gateway June 23, 2008)