Opinion

Govts must be more open with budgets

(China Daily)
Updated: 2010-02-03 07:49

Some member of the people's congress in Guangdong province recently found that government funds were used to reimburse some kindergartens run by certain departments. Governments have to be more transparent with their budget revenue and ensure that kindergartens or any other institution do not enjoy privileges, says an article in Zhujiang Evening News. Excerpts:

Some special kindergartens in Guangdong are drawing a lot of attention after some members of the provincial people's congress discovered they had been receiving government funds. Government revenue was used to fund more than 8 million yuan of the 15 million yuan yearly cost of these kindergartens.

Surprisingly, all the kindergartens are attached to certain authoritative departments, and ordinary people cannot even dream of having their children admitted to them.

In other words, these kindergartens were opened specially for the children of some civil servants and officials. Why should the government pay taxpayers money to run elite kindergartens?

To make matters worse, this information was not listed in revenue reports. It was a closely guarded secret. And it would have remained so had not the Guangdong government released its budget. That's precisely why government budgets have to be made public. Only transparency can prevent corruption and stop the drain on public funds.