On the morning of March 25th, as the Ministry of Finance took the lead to announce the departmental budget for 2021, the annual central department budget was opened to the public.
On the same day, a total of 102 central departments (units) announced their 2021 budgets.
In an interview with reporters, Bai Jingming, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Fiscal Sciences, said that the scope of this year's budget disclosure has been further expanded and the disclosure content has been more detailed. In particular, "too tight" and "reducing expenditures" have become keywords for 102 central departments' budgets.
On the one hand, it reflects that the service-oriented government is responsible to the people, lets the people know how much the government has spent and what it does, and facilitates public supervision; on the other hand, it reflects the timely implementation of the central policy, so that the public can truly understand the guarantees issued by the government. How important policies such as people’s livelihood and promoting economic development are reflected in the budget reflects the scientific nature of government decision-making and the effectiveness of implementation, and helps to enhance the government’s credibility.
Budget disclosure information is more comprehensive and specific
The Ministry of Finance's 2021 departmental budget report is divided into four parts: an overview of the Ministry of Finance, a 2021 departmental budget table, an explanation of the departmental budget for 2021, and an explanation of terms.
The budget report shows that the Ministry of Finance’s budget for the “San Gong” in 2021 is 22,837,400 yuan, of which: 13.114 million yuan for business trips abroad (border) expenses, 8.692 million yuan for official vehicle purchase and operation expenses, and 1.0308 million yuan for official reception expenses.
In 2021, the "San Gong" budget will be reduced by 1.6287 million yuan from 2020, or 6.66%, mainly in accordance with the relevant requirements of the Party Central Committee and the State Council on living too tightly, to implement all undertakings strictly and to further reduce the need to go abroad on business. Expenses for tasks, official car expenses and official reception expenses.
Like the Ministry of Finance, the departmental budgets published by other central departments this year generally include departmental revenue and expenditure summary, department revenue summary, department expenditure summary, fiscal appropriation revenue and expenditure summary, general public budget expenditures, and general public budget basic expenditures. 9 reports including the general public budget "San Gong" expenditure table, government fund budget expenditure table, state-owned capital operating budget expenditure table, etc., comprehensively and truly reflect the overall situation of departmental revenue and expenditure and fiscal appropriation revenue and expenditure.
Except for confidential information, general public budget expenditures are disclosed to the expenditure function classification item-level subjects, among which basic expenditures are disclosed to the departmental budget expenditure economic classification section-level subjects.
While disclosing the above budget table, each department also explained the changes in budget revenues and expenditures, the organization's operating expenditure arrangements, "three public" funds, government procurement, state-owned assets occupation, budget performance management, and items submitted to the National People's Congress for deliberation. , And explained the more professional terms.
In order to enable the public to find, understand, and supervise, the departmental budgets of various departments are not only published on the department's website, but also continue to be displayed in a centralized manner on the "central budget and final accounts open platform" established by the Ministry of Finance's portal website.
In an interview with reporters, Bai Yanfeng, dean of the School of Finance and Taxation of the Central University of Finance and Economics, stated that budget disclosure is the core requirement of the reform of the budget management system and an important part of government information disclosure. It plays an important role in realizing the modernization of the national governance system and governance capabilities.
He pointed out that vigorously promoting budget openness and giving full play to the role of budget openness and transparency in the supervision and restraint of government departments will help promote the construction of a sunny government, a responsible government, and a service government.
The central government budget publicly presents five highlights
Open the China Post Group Co., Ltd. department budget for 2021, the reporter found that in Table 9 of the state-owned capital operating budget expenditure table, the subject names are divided into state-owned capital operating budget expenditures, solving historical problems and reform costs, and retired cadres' medical expenses subsidies Expenses, capital injection of state-owned enterprises, and expenditures for the structural adjustment of the state-owned economy.
Among them, the state-owned capital operating budget expenditure is 500.2124 million yuan.
The central government's first public release of the state-owned capital operating budget is one of the new changes this year.
According to the regulations of the Budget Law Implementation Regulations revised and implemented in 2020 that “the budgets of various departments shall reflect the general public budget, government fund budgets, and state-owned capital operation budgets for all budget funds allocated to the department and its affiliated units”, 10 this year The department disclosed the relevant content of the state-owned capital operation budget.
Bai Jingming told reporters that in the past, departmental budget disclosure included two types of budgets, namely general public budgets and government fund budgets. This year’s state-owned capital operating budget was disclosed for the first time this year, not only to implement the requirements of the implementation regulations of the Budget Law, but also to increase the content of budget disclosure. More rich and complete.
Another notable change is the increased disclosure of project expenditure budgets.
When the central government announced its budget this year, it continued to explain the status of the projects submitted to the National People's Congress for deliberation.
The disclosed project content includes project overview, project basis, implementation subject, implementation plan, implementation cycle, annual budget arrangement, performance targets, etc.
According to statistics, this year 81 departments have published the project texts of 104 projects, an increase of 21 projects over the previous year.
Bai Jingming told reporters that requiring all departments to disclose a certain number of project expenditures, especially in the budget link, is to implement the requirements of the central document, that is, to achieve full coverage of budget performance management, which is of great significance.
He said: "Project expenditures account for a relatively high proportion of departmental budget expenditures, and some departmental project expenditures account for much more than basic expenditures. Publicizing the performance targets of project expenditures can reflect the overall performance of departmental budgets to a large extent. At the same time, the emphasis on performance management also reflects the requirements of the modern financial system, that is, budgets must be standardized and transparent, performance means standardization, and openness means transparency."
It is understood that this year when the central departments are conducting budget disclosures, in addition to the secret-related departments and secret-related information, each department will disclose at least one first-level project performance target table. Among them, the central department that submits the project for deliberation by the National People's Congress needs to publicly submit the project for deliberation. Text and performance target table.
In Bai Jingming's view, there is a new change in the central government budget disclosure this year that is developing in depth.
That is, the central department should implement the budget law implementation regulations while doing its own budget publicity, guide and urge subordinate units to earnestly perform their main responsibilities, and disclose unit budgets in accordance with laws and regulations.
“In the past, departmental budgets disclosed the total amount, which was specific to each level in a department’s budget, including the budgets of secondary budget units and tertiary budget units. The budgets of the second-level budget units and third-level budget units were not disclosed, and the vertical expenditure structure was not visible. To make it public, the vertical expenditure structure is clear at a glance, so that you can better see how the money is spent and where the key points are spent. This is a big improvement and a concrete manifestation of the implementation of the implementation regulations of the Budget Law." Bai Jingming said.
Liu Yi, director of the Department of Finance of the School of Economics at Peking University, believes that there is another bright spot in this year's budget disclosure, which is that while continuing to implement the tight deadlines to reduce expenditures, it also provides objective explanations for some items of expenditure growth.
In recent years, governments at all levels have insisted on saving resources for the people, living a tight life, and ensuring that basic people’s livelihood expenditures only increase.
This year, when the central government announced its budget, it continued to make public the implementation of the excessively tight requirements to reduce expenditures.
According to statistics, the budget for fiscal appropriations for the central government's "three public" funds will be 5.187 billion yuan in 2021, a decrease of 330 million yuan or 6% from the 2020 budget.
Among them: travel abroad (border) expenses for business purposes were 674 million yuan, a decrease of 4 million yuan, a decrease of 0.6%; official vehicle purchase and operation expenses were 4.268 billion yuan (including 926 million yuan purchase expenses and 3.342 billion yuan), a decrease of 311 million yuan Yuan, down 6.8%; official reception fees were 245 million yuan, a decrease of 15 million yuan, or 5.8%.
"Expenditure cannot be reduced blindly. This year, some departments have added explanations for reasonable growth in expenditures, showing a pragmatic and meticulous style, which is conducive to the public's understanding and supervision." Liu Yi said.
The scope of disclosure of project expenditure performance targets continues to expand
The reporter opened the departmental budget of the Ministry of Science and Technology for 2021 and found that the "special scientific and technological business expenses" include three projects, namely the special scientific and technological literature information, the special innovative method work, and the academic publication fund. A total of 562 million yuan will be allocated in 2021.
For the above-mentioned projects, the "Project Performance Goal Table" discloses the annual overall goals and performance goals.
Among them, performance targets are divided into first-level indicators, second-level indicators, and third-level indicators, and each indicator is divided into several sub-items.
Like the Ministry of Science and Technology, 99 departments have published performance target tables for 128 projects this year, an increase of 19 projects over the previous year.
In recent years, the Ministry of Finance has vigorously promoted the reform of the budget performance management of the central departments, and basically achieved full coverage of the performance target management of the project expenditures of the central departments, especially the public scope of the performance targets of key projects has been expanded year by year.
In 2017, some central departments and their departmental budgets released the performance target tables of 10 key projects for the first time. By 2020, the number of performance targets has increased to 109.
In 2021, on the basis of publicly submitting the NPC deliberation project performance target table, the central department will continue to increase the selection of representative project performance target tables for public disclosure.
Experts in the industry said that by disclosing the performance targets of key projects, the "windows" for all sectors of society to understand the government's performance of duties have been further opened, and the "task lists, timetables, and renderings" of financial capital investment are clearly displayed, so that the public can see more directly. Where are the financial funds arranged and what is the expected use effect.
At the same time, it is also conducive to urging departments to implement performance responsibilities, improve efficiency awareness, promote fund-using units to strengthen management, and effectively improve the use of financial funds.
Bai Yanfeng said that the scope of disclosure of key performance targets of the central government has been expanding year by year, which can better play the role of "under the above rate", drive local governments and departments to actively follow up, help promote the construction of a modern budget system, and truly spend fiscal funds On the "knife edge", promote proactive fiscal policies to improve quality and efficiency, and be more sustainable.
Finance is the foundation and an important pillar of national governance, and many of the country's major policies must be reflected and implemented through key expenditure items of the central government.
"By gradually expanding the performance targets of some key projects of the central government, with openness as the normal and non-openness as the exception, it is of great significance for the people to fully understand the country's major policies and strengthen the overall planning of financial resources." Bai Yanfeng said.
Reporter Li Zhongfeng