Long-term mechanism should be established for repeated problems

2017-07-06
english.gov.cn

For repetitive problems detected in an audit, a long-term mechanism should be established to solve them, instead of just rectification, Premier Li Keqiang said at the State Council executive meeting on July 5.

The State Council decided to rectify problems detected in the audit of the central budget implementation in 2016, which have previously been released to the public. Premier Li urged related departments to rectify the problems including fraud of policy implementation and irregular use of capital.

Premier Li urged that the government needs to notify the related departments responsible for issues discovered during auditing process. They should initiate a targeted overhaul in a timely manner and carry out follow-up inspection by the Audit Commission.

The Audit Commission’s report found various issues during the auditing process. For example, until the end of March, 21 qualification and licenses such as electronic safety training and information system engineer qualification were not canceled or delegated to lower level governments as required by the State Council.

The removal of 11 items of administrative approval or intermediary services related to basic medical insurance also did not follow proper inspection.

“The reforms are intended to stimulate market vitality, and also gained recognition by society, which were approved by the government. Therefore, all departments should reinforce their efforts on the implementation of such reforms,” said Premier Li.

Relatively more complex questions have been discovered amid auditing. For instance, as more value-added taxes are deductible during the reform, input VAT rates were mistaken with output tax rates in some enterprises or industries.

This will lead to a phenomenon that new deductible input taxes would surpass output taxes, which will end up increasing burdens on companies.

“Such kind of mistakes shouldn’t have been made. But in such a large country, it is indeed unavoidable due to lack of experiences amid the VAT reform,” said the Premier.

“Relative departments should roll out pertinent measures as soon as possible to get these problems solved,” he said.

The State Council also decided to step up efforts in implementing measures to delegate power to lower levels, streamline administrative approval, optimize government services, and reform VAT.

Local governments should further cut excess industrial capacity, alleviate poverty, and protect ecological environment.

Fund management in public spending, poverty alleviation, and medical insurance, should be enhanced to improve people’s lives, and tighten supervision to prevent misuse of public funds.

Premier Li asked related government departments to not only resolutely correct complex problems, but also strengthen inspections to strictly hold those accountable failing to rectify or perform their duties, and put an end to rectification fraud.

The Premier stressed honesty in rectification, especially for complicated problems that require longer time. “The rectification results must be authentic,” said the Premier.

All related central departments and local governments should submit their rectification reports to the State Council by the end of October, which will be made public after they report to the Standing Committee of National People’s Congress.

Premier Li also urged leading officials of related departments and local governments to complete their rectification work strictly within the time limit.