Transparent budgets

The fact that disclosure of government budgets has become a key public concern marks a step forward in the political democratization of the country. Yet, governments at various levels have done little to inform the public on how their money is being spent.

Only 18 government departments of the 109 that responded to a survey of administrative transparency conducted by the public policy research center under the Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, have made public their budgets, but just a part of that, even when the law requires that it should be published in full.

Their degree of administrative transparency is only 3.21 points against the required 100 points as per the State Council's regulations on government information disclosure, the survey published Tuesday has shown.