From News, page 3, issue 338, Oct 22, 2007
Translated by Zuo Maohong
Original article: [Chinese]

Central ministries and commissions are in for a spending spree.

The bureaucracies have some 400 billion yuan to dispose of in two months. That's all the time they left to use up funds made available to them under the 2007 budget, and so far only 60% has been spent.

The rush to spend comes after a warning from the Ministry of Finance, which states that a failure to execute expenditures on time may lead to a cut in next year's funding.

This has long been a problem for the government, as past years' national audit reports revealed.

The Ministry of Finance has recently shown unprecedented drive in facing the problem,calling for funding cuts and reprimanding bureaucracies that made unrealistic budget applications.

The ministry's move indicates a shift in budget reform emphasis, opines Ma Caichen, fellow at the Institute of Finance and Trade Economics under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

Up till the end of August, meteorological agencies spent just under 55% of their budgets, lagging far behind the 75% perscribed by the ministry.

The agencies are now under strict order from the Central Meteorological Administration to spend 2.5 billion yuan before the end of the year.

The Ministry of Health has also given like orders to its agencies, setting the deadline for the end of November.

In fact, most ministries and commissions face similar problems. This does not mean that there's no demand for funding, on the contrary, there are plenty of incidences where funds are needed but not available.