Intro: China’s State Council Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development (LGOP) improved mechanisms and enhanced supervision and inspection in the key areas of poverty alleviation, in an effort to promote government transparency. Here is an outline of China’s efforts on transparency in government operations in 2019, excerpted from Yearbook of China’s Poverty Alleviation and Development, 2020.
In 2019, China’s State Council Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development (LGOP) implemented Regulation of the People’s Republic of China on the Disclosure of Government Information. In accordance with the Notice of the General Office of the State Council on Issuing a Work Plan for Increasing Transparency in Government Operations in 2019 and other requirements, following the principles of ensuring public awareness, public participation and public supervision, LGOP improved mechanisms and enhanced supervision and inspection in the key areas of poverty alleviation, in an effort to promote government transparency.
In 2019, 3,546 pieces of information were disclosed, including 3,439 pieces on government affairs, 102 pieces on disclosing the latest version of information catalog; 11 special columns and special coverage on the website were kept updated, and nine new special columns were newly set up. LGOP explored the use of new media to make public government affairs, including releasing 1,850 on our official Weibo account and 627 pieces via WeChat account.
In 2019, LGOP received no application for disclosing information, charged no fees or reduced fees for disclosing information, and didn’t get involved in administrative reconsideration or administrative litigation filed by others for applying for disclosing information.
Strengthening organization and leadership. LGOP set up the mechanism that the top officials of the LGOP took charge, the General Department made coordinated efforts and conducted supervision, and various units directly affiliated to the LGOP responsible for fulfilling specific tasks. The heads of all units directly affiliated to the LGOP were designated as the ones bearing primary responsibility for disclosing government information of their own units.
Making public various information in a timely manner. First, conducting intensive publicity. Aiming to keep the public updated about the major achievements made in poverty alleviation and some other hot-spot issues like delisting poor counties and activities held to mark the Day for the Eradication of Poverty, LGOP held eight news conferences on anti-poverty decisions and arrangements, work progress and policy implementation. Second, increasing open access to key information.In terms of the LGOP, it prioritized for information disclosure in such fields as the decisions and arrangements made by the State Council on poverty alleviation, poverty-relief polices and related policy interpretation on precise identification, targeted assistance and delisting poverty-stricken counties, the allocation of poverty-relief funds assigned by the central government and the requirements for managing such funds, the poverty alleviation progress in localities, the government affairs on the financial information and approving and removing officials in the local poverty-relief offices. LGOP accepted the public supervision and tip-offs on the illegal use of poverty-relief funds and malpractice in poverty alleviation projects via the hotline of 12317 for poverty reduction supervision and problem reporting. LGOP set up a platform to publicly expose the misconduct violating laws and regulations in poverty alleviation found in localities. Third, making the information processing more standardized and procedure-based. In 2019, LGOP received 1,088 visits and 3,204 letters, answered 83,797 calls from the hotline 12317, and handled 285 letters sent to the director’s mailbox. LGOP dealt with 5,397 complaints, and 5,137 cases had been settled, bringing 95.2 percent to a conclusion. Fourth, making public the opinions on dealing with their suggestions and proposals made for “two sessions”. LGOP disclosed the 57 suggestions approved by the National People’s Congress (NPC) and 25 proposals approved by the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC). LGOP enhanced the review on confidential documents and adhered to the principle that information was to be withheld only in exceptional circumstances.
Vigorously carrying out trials for increasing government transparency at the community level. LGOP conducted surveys on increasing community-level government transparency in poverty alleviation. Based on the opinions from the member units of the State Council Leading Group of Poverty Alleviation and Development and the poverty-relief departments in localities, LGOP formulated and issued guidelines for making government operations more open at the community level, which specified the items concerning community-level poverty alleviation affairs in need of disclosure, the catalog, and work procedures. LGOP enhanced the work deployment through holding meetings and reporting the latest situations to higher-level officials, and laid out standards and rules for localities to make public poverty alleviation-related affairs. LGOP made more efforts to build transparency into community-level government work and government services got further improved.
Doing a good job in website census. According to the requirements of a notice on conducting quarterly random checks on government websites and a notice on issuing guidelines for operating government websites, LGOP conducted four quarterly random checks on portal websites in 2019, and all of the checked websites were qualified. During the inspection, the official website of the LGOP did not have such problems as website inaccessibility, failure to update the contents on the website, serious errors, and poor interactive response. The website accessibility, displaying updated content and response to internet users’ comments and questions all met standards. In 2019, LGOP received 11 messages from netizens on the monitoring and reporting platform called “looking for mistakes on government websites”, all of which were handled.
Resource：
[1] Yearbook of China’s poverty alleviation and development for 2020.
