For the First Time, Ten Departments, Including the Ministry of Environmental Protection and the Ministry of Science and Technology, Publicly Released the Budgets for Key Projects

Reporters learned from the Ministry of Finance that a total of 105 central government departments have recently released their departmental budgets to the public. Among them, ten departments, including the Ministry of Environmental Protection and the Ministry of Science and Technology, released their budgets for key projects for the first time. This also marks the first time that central government departments in my country have centrally released their budgets on a shared platform.

The budgets released by central government departments include eight reports: a general revenue and expenditure statement, a general revenue statement, a general expenditure statement, a general statement of fiscal appropriations revenue and expenditure, a general public budget expenditure statement, a general public budget basic expenditure statement, a general public budget expenditure statement for "three public expenses" (official hospitality, official vehicles, and overseas travel), and a government fund budget expenditure statement. These reports reflect the overall revenue and expenditure situation of departments and the revenue and expenditure situation of fiscal appropriations from different levels and perspectives.

It is understood that this is the eighth consecutive year that central government departments have promoted the public release of their departmental budgets. Notably, compared to April 15th of last year, this year's release of central government department budgets was eight days earlier. Furthermore, the number of departments releasing their budgets has increased. Preliminary statistics show that a total of 105 departments released their budgets to the public this year, including the Supreme People's Court, the National Working Committee on Aging, and the China Academy of Socialism, which released their budgets for the first time. It is noteworthy that this year marks the first time relevant departments have publicly disclosed the budgets of key projects. Ten departments, including the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Science and Technology, and the Ministry of Environmental Protection, have released the project documents and performance targets for ten key projects for the first time, further refining the content of departmental budget disclosure.

Specifically, the ten key projects disclosed in 2017 include the Ministry of Education's High-Level Talent Program Special Fund Project, the Ministry of Science and Technology's National Key Research and Development Program, the Ministry of Environmental Protection's Action Plan for Air, Water, and Soil Pollution Prevention and Control Implementation Management Project, and the Ministry of Transport's Central Waterway Rescue Special Business Expenses Project. The disclosed key projects include project overview, basis for approval, implementing entity, implementation plan, implementation period, and annual budget allocation.

As an important measure to implement the Government Work Report, this year, the aforementioned ten departments simultaneously disclosed the project expenditure performance targets along with the information on the ten key projects.

"Performance targets are the foundation of budget performance management and a key basis for monitoring budget execution performance and conducting ex-post performance evaluations," explained a relevant official from the Ministry of Finance. The official added that the simultaneous disclosure of project performance targets along with project budgets in 2017 marked another significant step forward for the central government in advancing budget performance management. This will help strengthen departmental accountability, urge fund-using units to improve management, enhance the efficiency of fund utilization, and ensure the accurate and effective implementation of central policies. It will also improve the transparency of project fund utilization, better reflect departmental performance capabilities, and enhance government credibility. Furthermore, it will facilitate self-evaluation by fund-using units after the annual budget execution, comparing their performance against the targets set at the beginning of the year. The Ministry of Finance and relevant central departments will organize third-party institutions and experts to conduct re-evaluations, promoting policy improvement, management strengthening, and budget preparation methods.

The official further stated that the Ministry of Finance will continue to promote the disclosure of key projects by departments, expanding the scope of departments disclosing key projects and increasing the number of disclosed key projects. In conjunction with the platform's development, the platform structure will be further improved, its content enriched, and its ability to release budget information, interpret policies, respond to public concerns, and guide public opinion enhanced. The platform will be gradually developed into a more timely, accurate, and effective public service platform for releasing central government and departmental budget and final accounts information, making it the primary source of budget information for the public and an important channel for supervising the central government's fiscal work.

Jiang Zhen, associate researcher at the Institute of Finance and Economics Strategy of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the *Economic Information Daily* that the budget is a crucial element of national governance, and a well-established and mature budget system is a sign of modernized national governance. Promoting budget transparency allows for greater public oversight of the budget. "How to help the public better understand the budget is a key focus for future improvements in budget transparency, because understanding can come from different perspectives. Departmental spending must be commensurate with government functions and is also related to specific stages of development. Optimizing budget transparency helps the public understand socio-economic life and the key functions of the government. By improving the methods of budget transparency, the public can pay more attention to and understand the budget."