There is a unit that saves 4 million gas bills at a time, which is enough for two years. What is the explanation for the phenomenon of sudden spending?
｜Financial Tax Benefit Kan
At the end of the year, the phenomenon of "spending money on surprises" in some government departments and units improved overall, but the chronic diseases are hard to get rid of.
Recently, some provinces announced their local 2020 annual provincial (city)-level budget implementation and other fiscal revenue and expenditure audit work reports (hereinafter referred to as "audit reports"), pointing out that some departments and units have problems with unexpected spending.
The Beijing audit report stated that some units still had the phenomenon of rushing to spend money. In order to circumvent the regulations on the management of surplus funds, individual units had a one-time deposit of 4 million yuan in gas fees, which was enough for the unit to use for 2 years.
There are also some projects that are earlier than the contract stipulations, and the contract payment is paid in advance when the project has not been checked and accepted.
The Shandong audit report pointed out that 17 departments and units failed to pay 22,798,900 yuan in advance for engineering, maintenance, and purchases in accordance with the contract.
At the end of the year, six departments and units raided 697,500 yuan of recharged gas cards and ETC cards.
Two provincial-level hospitals paid 74,005,100 yuan in advance for the project and the goods when the project had not been started or the equipment had not been checked into the warehouse.
The Hainan audit report found that the two departments had made a surprise expenditure of 1,240,100 yuan at the end of the year by paying the contract payment in advance at the end of the year.
The government budget expert and Professor Deng Shulian of Shanghai University of Finance and Economics analyzed CBN, these are common methods for local government departments to spend money in surprise.
Although the problem of surprise spending has decreased significantly in recent years, it still exists. The direct cause of surprise spending is that the surplus funds of departments and units are collected at the end of the year. The fundamental reason is that budget management is not refined and imperfect.
"Spending money assault" is hard to stop
The so-called "surprise spending" phenomenon mainly refers to the excessive proportion of fiscal expenditure in the fourth quarter of each year, especially in December.
Some government departments and units focus on spending money in the last few months of the year, giving people the impression that spending is not scientific and reasonable, and there may even be a problem of indiscriminate spending.
Deng Shulian said that “spending money as a surprise” undermines the smooth execution of the budget, is not conducive to the steady supply of public goods, is not conducive to the improvement of the efficiency of public funds, and may even cause wasteful use of public funds.
The budgeting method of Chinese government departments and units mainly adopts a base budget. Generally, the previous year's expenditure is the base, and a certain increase in the proportion of funds is appropriately considered.
If the budgetary funds of government departments and units are not spent at the end of the year, under the background of the government's efforts to revitalize the fiscal stock funds in recent years, this carry-over surplus funds will be recovered by the government, and the budgetary fund base of the departments and units may be reduced in the next year.
This also caused some departments to "spend money as a surprise" at the end of the year.
Deng Shulian believes that the fundamental reason for "spending money on surprise" lies in the imperfect and imperfect budget management.
For example, when preparing budgets, some departments tend to overestimate the budget, which makes the funds applied for more than the actual funds needed; the budget preparation is not meticulous, and scientific budgeting methods are not adopted. Many projects are roughly estimated, rather than based on actual needs. Scientific budget, which makes the budget amount out of touch with actual demand.
She said that in the budget implementation process, some departments and units have problems with their own schedule control. For example, the financial budget management department of many departments only reminds the user of the deadline for the use of funds one or two months before the end of the year, rather than according to the budget schedule. Planned management will also lead to "explosive spending" at the end of the year.
In addition, Deng Shulian analyzed that because some project budgets require the approval of the National People’s Congress to be implemented, half of the budget year has passed when many project budgets are implemented. The project budget for one year has to be implemented in half a year or less. Larger, it is inevitable to concentrate on spending money at the end of the year.
Li Yan, director of the Institute of Budget Management of the Central University of Finance and Economics, told Yicai.com that there are both subjective and objective reasons that lead to "spending money on surprises."
Subjective reasons such as unscientific budgeting, applying for a "big budget" that exceeds the actual need for funds, and fear of being recovered if the annual expenditure cannot be spent, so rush to spend money.
She said that the objective reason is that from the objective law of budget expenditure progress, expenditure does not occur in a balanced manner on a monthly or quarterly basis during the budget year. Objectively, the bulk of expenditure often occurs in the second half of the year, and there are many influencing factors, such as budgets. The time required for the release of funds after statutory procedures, the actual start time of some projects after the preliminary feasibility study and bidding procedures, the acceptance of the project after the completion of the project, the performance evaluation and settlement time, the implementation of policy changes that need to be adjusted, and the budget Constraints on spending money brought about by standardized management, etc.
"Although the early release of certain budget funds, project library construction reforms and related system construction have alleviated the problems of late release of funds, preconditions for spending money, and multiple links, the problems have not been fundamentally resolved. So. The collision between the hard constraints of the surplus fund system and the subjective and objective problems in the actual use of funds has brought about the problem of surprise spending at the end of the year." Li Yan said.
Of course, spending money as a surprise at the end of the year does not mean spending money indiscriminately. Some project funds and other year-end expenditures are also in line with national conditions.
A number of fiscal and taxation experts told Yicai.com reporters that in recent years, financial departments at all levels have accelerated budget implementation progress, increased their efforts to revitalize fiscal stock funds, improved budget management systems, and strengthened budget fund performance management. All of these have led to surprise spending at the end of the year. Significant improvement, but this phenomenon still exists.
Professor Kang Fengli of Guangdong University of Foreign Studies has collected relevant data from 30 provinces in China from 2005 to 2018 and found that although the provincial government’s year-end "raid spending" has improved in recent years, it still exists.
The efficiency of provincial fiscal expenditures has increased in recent years, but the waste of fiscal funds still exists.
Under the current budget system, there is still room for improvement in the efficiency of fiscal expenditures in the third and fourth quarters.
Take multiple measures to eradicate "spending money as a surprise"
Li Yan believes that to eradicate the problem of "spending money on surprise attacks," it is impossible to simplify "one size fits all" by classifying and implementing policies based on the subjective and objective causes.
She suggested that the current management methods for budget surplus funds should be further refined and improved, and the objective laws of different types of expenditures should be fully considered, and different expenditure progress evaluation indicators should be set up scientifically, rather than simply requiring matching time schedules.
Deng Shulian also believes that the financial department should carefully review the reasons for the fund balance. If it is an objective reason, such as the implementation cycle is one year, but the implementation time is actually only half a year, the management of the balance funds should be relaxed according to the actual situation and the management measures should be The actual situation is consistent.
For example, at the end of last year, the Ministry of Finance issued a document stating that project funds that cannot be used up before the end of the anti-epidemic special treasury bond can be carried forward to the next year for arrangement. Special transfer payments, county-level basic financial guarantee mechanism bonus funds and other funds have not been used up that year. Can be carried forward to use next year.
This can also prevent some departments from rushing to spend money.
Li Yan believes that it is necessary to establish a scientific classification of budget expenditure standards to lay a solid foundation for scientific budgeting.
And strengthen the construction of the project library, do a good job of pre-expenditure preparations, and achieve actual expenditures quickly after the budget and expenditure targets are issued.
In addition, she suggested that by increasing the organic connection of various links of budget management and coordination between departments, such as budget decision approval, fund release, implementation adjustment, bidding, acceptance and settlement, performance management, etc., form a joint force to improve efficiency expenditure .
Deng Shulian said that to strengthen the management of budgeting, departmental budgeting should be refined and scientific to prevent the application of budget from being out of line with actual needs.
During the execution of the budget, the financial budget management agencies of each department should regularly remind them, rather than waiting until the end of the year, such as a month or a quarter to remind fund users to execute the budget in accordance with the fund use plan.
The Ministry of Finance has also continuously strengthened supervision in recent years.
For example, the Ministry of Finance issued a document at the end of last year, requiring all localities to resolutely prevent surprise spending at the end of the year, and not to use fiscal funds to hold annual meetings, celebrations, and grant benefits in violation of regulations. The funds that were difficult to use up before can be carried forward to the next year for use.
(Author: Chen Yikan)