The expenditure of the "three public services" in multiple departments is less than the budget

102 central departments made public final accounts, explaining for the first time the performance evaluation of state-owned capital operating budget projects

　　On July 21, 102 central departments collectively disclosed the 2021 departmental final accounts to the public, and the scope and depth of disclosure were further expanded.

　　Departmental final accounts are a comprehensive annual report prepared by central departments in accordance with relevant laws and their own functions, reflecting the implementation results and performance of all departmental budget revenues, expenditures and balances.

　　Simply understand that the departmental final accounts are the “spending” of the department in the past year. To disclose the departmental final accounts is to “spread” the accounts to the society, accept supervision, and use this as the basis and reference for improvement, and continuously improve the effect of “spending money”. .

　　In the past three years, the new crown epidemic has raged around the world, causing a serious impact on the world economy.

As the world's second largest economy, China will inevitably be affected.

In the face of such a situation, the government should pay more attention to the results. On the one hand, it must “live tight”, reduce non-key and non-rigid expenditures, and strictly control general expenditures; on the other hand, every penny spent must be Contribute to the "stable growth" of the economy.

　　These are written in this year's department "ledger".

The 12th year that the departmental final accounts have been made public, while gradually standardized and institutionalized, it still presents new ideas.

Several obvious changes in the public content all illustrate the same question: under the epidemic, how can finance support the steady growth of China's economy?

Follow 1

Evaluate the effectiveness of each expenditure

　　Overall, the framework of this year's public content has not changed, which can be summarized as "duties-funding-performance", that is, the performance of departmental functions requires corresponding expenditures, and each expenditure must be evaluated for its effect.

　　This year, the central departments continued to use 9 reports to present the expenditure of the whole year, including the final statement of income and expenditure, the final statement of fiscal appropriation revenue and expenditure, and the final statement of general public budget financial appropriation "three public" expenditures, etc., covering departmental revenue and expenditure. The overall situation of expenditures and the income and expenditure of financial appropriations.

　　In addition to confidential information, income final accounts, expenditure final accounts, etc. are detailed and disclosed to the functional classification item-level subjects, and the general public budget financial appropriation basic expenditure final account detailed table is further detailed and disclosed to the economic classification sub-level subjects - each specific item A function corresponds to a specific expenditure.

　　Taking the Fire and Rescue Bureau of the Ministry of Emergency Management as an example, the expenditure is divided into two parts: personnel expenses and public expenses in the "Detailed Table", and the public expenditure items are further detailed in the item-level expenditure items, for example, in "Commodities and service expenditures" Under the item-level subjects, 27 item-level subjects such as "office expenses", "printing expenses" and "heating expenses" were further disclosed in detail.

Follow 2

"Three public" expenditures show a trend of continuous reduction

　　The "three public" expenditures of various departments have always been concerned.

On the basis of the need to ensure the normal performance of the department, the scale of expenditure on "three public services" in recent years has generally shown a trend of continuous reduction.

　　Under the epidemic, the government has to "tighten life" even more.

At the National Financial Work Conference held on December 27, 2021, Minister of Finance Liu Kun stated that it is necessary to vigorously reduce non-key and non-rigid expenditures, strictly control general expenditures, strengthen the budget management of "three public" funds, and strive to reduce Administrative running costs.

The central government should take the lead, and local finance should be more stringent, freeing up more financial resources to improve basic people's livelihood and support the development of market players.

　　Judging from the disclosure of the final accounts of the central departments this year, the expenditure on "three public services" has been significantly reduced, and it is also less than the budget at the beginning of the year.

　　Taking the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council as an example, the “three public” expenditures of departments include not only the SASAC organs, but also the second and third-level budget units to which they belong.

In 2021, the department's "three public" expenditures will be finalized at 3.2888 million yuan, 25.6% of the budget.

　　The State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission stated that the main reason for the fact that the final accounts were significantly lower than the budget was due to the strict control of “three public” expenditures, coupled with the impact of the global epidemic, the postponement or cancellation of work tasks that were required to go abroad as planned, and many international activities were postponed. Or it will be held online, which will greatly reduce the cost of going abroad on business (border) compared with the budget.

　　According to the final accounts of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, in 2021, the department organized a total of 4 overseas (boundary) groups, and a total of 10 people went abroad throughout the year.

The final account of the expenses for going abroad (territorial) on business was 90,600 yuan, which was significantly less than the budget (3,221,600 yuan).

　　The government's "tight life" is not an appropriate move.

Liu Kun said in a signed article published at the beginning of the year, "Regardless of whether funds are abundant or tight, always focus on coordinating income and expenditure, needs and possibilities... Really spend money on the edge."

Follow 3

The increase of pilot projects for the performance evaluation of the overall expenditure of the department

　　In the performance part, this year, the disclosure of performance information of central departments is wider and stronger.

Paying for the results, disclosure of performance will help the central department to further optimize the use of funds and improve transparency.

　　This year, the number of project performance self-assessments has increased significantly. At the same time, the number of project performance self-assessment forms submitted to the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress along with the central final accounts has increased to 586, an increase of 93 over the previous year.

　　The number of key financial performance evaluation projects increased from 40 in the previous year to 72 this year, involving 1.3 trillion yuan of funds.

The performance evaluation reports of 36 key projects were submitted to the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress for reference, an increase of 7 over the previous year, involving more than 600 billion yuan.

　　Another notable change is that this year, for the first time, central-level infrastructure investment projects, central-level state-owned capital management budget projects, and local government special bond projects have been included in the performance evaluation of key projects, and state-owned capital has been included in the departmental final accounts for the first time. The performance evaluation of the operating budget will be explained.

　　Bai Jingming, former vice president of the Chinese Academy of Fiscal Sciences, told reporters that in response to the economic downturn and the impact of the epidemic, the state proposed a proactive fiscal policy to improve quality and efficiency, supporting infrastructure investment and issuing local government special bonds. These two items are included in the evaluation scope, which can timely reflect the implementation and implementation of the proactive fiscal policy.

　　For the first time, the performance evaluation of state-owned capital operation budget projects is explained, which reflects that budget performance management is gradually moving towards full coverage.

He explained that in 2018, the central government issued a document requiring the implementation of comprehensive budget performance management, which mentioned "full coverage", that is, to cover the budget performance management to the four budgets, from the original performance management mainly in the general public budget. , and gradually cover the government fund budget, state-owned capital operation budget and social insurance fund budget.

　　The reporter also noted that this year, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs and other departments have launched pilot projects for overall expenditure performance evaluation.

　　Bai Jingming believes that this is also a manifestation of the "full coverage" of budget performance management. Previously, performance evaluation was mainly aimed at the expenditure of a certain project, but now it has gradually expanded to the overall expenditure of the department.

With the gradual advancement of the pilot program, the overall expenditure performance management of the department will be more standardized and institutionalized.

Follow 4

Relevant information on government procurement expenditures

　　This year's departmental final accounts disclosure also detailed the relevant information of government procurement expenditures, mainly the government procurement contracts awarded to small and medium-sized enterprises, and disclosed the respective proportions of goods expenditures, engineering expenditures and service expenditures awarded to small and medium-sized enterprises.

　　This actually reflects the further refinement of the implementation of policies to support SMEs.

Since the epidemic, the financial department has successively introduced a series of measures to relieve the difficulties of small and medium-sized enterprises, including increasing support for government procurement.

　　At present, the price review discount for small and micro enterprises in the procurement of goods and services has been increased from 6%-10% to 10%-20%, and the reserved share of government procurement projects for small and medium-sized enterprises has been gradually increased from 30% to 40% this year.

　　Wang Dehua, a researcher at the Institute of Financial and Economic Strategy of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, introduced that in previous years, only small and medium-sized enterprises' contracts, the amount of small and micro enterprises' contracts and their proportion in government procurement were announced.

This year, the proportion of goods expenditure, engineering expenditure and service expenditure awarded to SMEs has been increased.

　　He said that from the experience of developed countries, government procurement is an important policy tool to support the development of small, medium and micro enterprises.

There are similar requirements in relevant laws and regulations in my country, but the implementation is not optimistic.

Refinement of relevant content in the public information of departmental final accounts will help guide and promote various departments to implement the requirements of government procurement to support the development of small, medium and micro enterprises, and will also help all sectors of society analyze problems in related policy areas, further improve the design of relevant systems in the field of government procurement, and further improve government procurement. Good support for the development of small, medium and micro enterprises.

　　Bai Jingming believes that this year is the seventh consecutive year that government procurement expenditure has been disclosed to the public. While maintaining the openness, fairness and justice of government procurement, it also reflects the direction of fiscal policy.

　　Beijing News reporter Jiang Huizi