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New Rules May Blow Lid off County Bosses' Baijiu Bills
Summary:Local governments from county-level upwards will soon be required to declare their spending on banquets, cars and foreign trips, as part of the central government’s “three public expenses” (三公经费) initiative.

 
Economic Observer Online
July 10, 2012
Translated by Tang Xiangyang
Original article:
[Chinese]

 
Local governments from county-level upwards will soon be required to declare their spending on banquets, cars and foreign trips, as part of the central government’s “three public expenses” (三公经费) initiative.

Counties are a relatively junior tier of government in China – for administrative purposes, provinces are mostly divided into prefectures and these are mostly divided into countries, with 2,862 zones at this level of government.

From October onwards, these administrations will have to report regularly on the costs allocated to “three expenses.” Their accounts will follow data from more senior officials, such as those at ministerial level, who, in many cases reluctantly, began reporting figures last year.

On July 9th, the State Council published a regulation on Government Affairs, which requires local governments to limit the proportion of the spending that goes towards on banquets, trips and cars and says that officials may be dismissed if they spend too much, build luxurious offices or arrange irrelevant foreign trips. Chinese banquets are popularly associated with the consumuption of baijiu, or white liquor, and officials' are so fond of the spirit that some people have blamed its rising price on their growing extravagence.

 
This wasn’t the only type of spending targeted in the regulation – government procurement will also be more closely monitored. Government agencies must follow open procedures and mustn’t seek to circumvent these requirements by breaking large orders into small batches. The goods or services procured should also be priced below the market average, the regulation says.

 
Links and Sources
The Economic Observer Reluctant Transparency
The Economic Observer The Illogical Excuses of the MoFA

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