Government transparency will
be vigorously promoted to bring the authorities under direct public supervision
and tackle corruption at its very source, a high-level group said yesterday.
"The central departments and governments at various levels are compiling
catalogues of government affairs that need to be made public, focusing on issues
of public concern and pertaining to their immediate interest," the National
Leading Group for Publicizing Government Affairs said in a statement.
The statement, released at a press conference on government transparency held
by the State Council Information Office, said the process of executing
administrative powers would be made more transparent to the public, either on
their own initiative or on request.
Gan Yisheng, deputy chief of the leading group, said governments at various
levels had "creatively" worked out ways of making governance affairs public in
accordance with the requirement that "publicizing is the principle while
non-publicizing is the exception."
He revealed that the State Council is drafting a regulation, to be completed
by the end of this year, on the release of government information.
Except State and business secrets, and personal privacy, government
information and processes should be made public to society or recipients of the
service in accordance with procedures and time limits, according to Gan.
From open competition in selecting officials and bidding for government
projects to having officials reporting on job and anti-corruption performance,
the government has become more transparent, sources in the leading group said.
This has put government work under the direct supervision of the masses, and
helped stem corruption, they added.
To ensure every citizen has access to information, governments at, or below,
county-level have either put up information boards or issued information cards
to the public; and higher-level governments have regularly issued bulletins, Gan
said.
Four-fifths of county-level governments or above have set up websites for
releasing information, and local governments have opened consultation hot lines.
(China Daily 09/27/2006 page1)
