Study On The Optimization Of Governmental Water Environmental Auditing In China

Since the 20th Century,the economic growth model of "high consumption,high consumption and high pollution" has intensified the imbalance of the water ecological environment across the world.Water resources shortage,water pollution and water ecological deterioration,which have broken through the boundaries of the countries and the regions,have evolved into a global problem.Chinese government has attached great importance to water environmental protectionand governance,and raised water environmental protection to the strategic height of our national development.A series of laws and regulations for water environmental protection have been enacted,and water pollution prevention plans have been implemented in key water basins.Meanwhile,the state continuously increases its investment in water environmental protection and governance.Therefore,it is inevitable for the audit department to supervise the formation,management,and usage of public fundsin the country,and evaluate the performance of the funds.Since 2003,the National Audit Office has appointed the auditors from its local audit office and local governmental audit departments to carry out water environmental auditing on the projects relating to Three Gorges Reservoir area,'three rivers-Liaohe River,haihe River,huaihe River,and three lakes-Taihu Lake,Chaohu Lake,Dianchi',the Bohai sea,the Yangtze River and the Pearl River.The governmental water environmental auditing plays an important role in supervising the implementation of laws,regulations and policies on water environmental protection,the management and use of water environmental protection funds,the construction and operation of major investment projects in water environmental protection,and improving the administrative management,etc.However,we have noticed that there are some imperfections in the water environmental auditing in China,both theoretical and practical,and need to be studied in depth by theoretical researchers and practitioners urgently.Based on reviewing of literatures on the water environmental auditing both at home and abroad,combining economics,management,auditing,and other related subject knowledge,via the hybrid strategy model of complete information static game theory,using a combination of literature research,questionnaires,and case studies,this study focuses on the optimization path of governmental water environmental auditing in China.This article summarizes the experience of INTOSAI water environmental auditing and findings of survey on water environmental auditing in countries around the world,then characterized the development and experience of the water environmental auditing in the United States of America.Based on analyzing the results on water environmental auditing announced by audit departments at all levels in China,and carrying out a questionnaire survey on staff from some audit departments,we finally put forward the optimization path for governmental water environmental auditing in China from two perspectives of application system and security mechanism.In addition,this study also makes some discussions on the performance evaluation ofgovernmental water environmental auditing.Research contents are as follows:(1)Study on the theory of governmental water environmental auditing.Based on the attributes of water resources as public goods,a hybrid strategy model of complete information static game is built to analyze the behavior and motivation of central government,local governments,the public and enterprises in the regulation and supervision of water environmental governance,and discuss the role of auditing institutions in governmental water environmental governance.(2)Development of foreign water environmental auditing.This paper presents the experience of INTOSAI in water environmental auditing.Based on the cases of 2003-2015 years' water environmental audit in member countries derived from the database of INTOSAI,the current situation and development rules of water environmental auditing in the world are summarized.Then,this paper reviews the development of water environmental auditing in the United States,analyses its characteristics in audit basis,scope,and type,and summarizes its experience worthy of reference to China.(3)Development of announcements of governmental water environmental auditing results in China.In the third and fourth chapters of this paper,the current situation of governmental water environmental auditing in China was investigated from two aspects-auditing results and auditing practices.In order to understand the governmental water environmental auditing results in our country,this paper collected announcements of water environmental auditing results issued by National Audit Office of People's Republic of China,Provincial Audit Office,and Municipal Bureau of Auditing Offices from 2003 to 2017.From the perspectiveof auditing quantitative,the characteristics of the total number,auditing topics and auditing types of water environmental auditing announcements issued by three levels of audit institutions were analyzed.From the perspective of auditing content,this paper analyzed institutional and structural problems in implementation of water environmental governance policy,management and utilization of water environmental protection funds,construction and operation of water environmental protection projects,and supervision of water environmental governance as reflected in governmental water environmental auditing results.(4)Current situation of governmental water environmental auditing practices in China.To further understand the current situation of governmental water environmental auditing practicesconducted by audit institutions in China,this study conducts a questionnaire survey on the staffs of some auditing institutions at provincial,municipal,and district level to obtain their understandingsand opinions of the governmental water environmental auditing practices.The content of the questionnaire covers four aspects as the development of water environmental auditing,operations and methods of water environmental auditing,announcements and utilization of water environmental auditing results,and suggestions for improving water environmental auditing.Subsequently,the software SPSS was used to do statistics and test the validity of the questionnaire results,and differences in some items'results of the questionnaire were found between different categories of respondents.The result of the questionnaire shows that three types of auditors have significant different answers in announcing the results of the water environmental auditing,cooperating with the department of resource and environmental protection at the same level,and attaching great importance to audit results.In terms of understanding water environmental protection laws and regulations and industry standards,conducting follow-up auditing of the audited entity's rectification,sharing data with other government environmental authorities,there are no significant differences among the three types of auditors.(5)The existing problems and optimization paths for the practices of governmental water environmental auditing in China.Based on the analysis of audit results and audit practices of governmental water environmental auditing in China illustrating in the first two chapters,this paper classifies the problems existing in the practices of water environmental auditing in China,and proposes the optimization paths for governmental water environmental auditing in China from two aspects:application system and guarantee mechanism.Among them,the application system could be optimized from four aspects:innovating audit techniques,refining audit model,enhancing announcements of audit results and improving the utilization of audit results.We also suggeststhat the guarantee mechanism could be optimized from five aspects:perfecting the laws and regulations,improving auditors' professional ability,tightening up on accountability,promoting environmental protection co-ordination,and constructing the performance evaluation index system of water environmental auditing.(6)Study on performance evaluation of governmental water environmental auditing.At present,China has not yet formed a unified performance evaluation index system for water environmental auditing.Most of the existing studies have constructed performance evaluation index systems based on the construction and operation process of a single water environmental treatment project,and there are few performance evaluation index systems that are based on the integrated management of water environment operated in a certain river basin or region.This study constructs a performance evaluation index system for water environmental auditing on the basis of water environmental integrated management in a river basin,and validates it with the auditing case of XX basin water environmental integrated management.This study aims to propose the paths to optimize the governmental water environmental auditing practice in China.The investigation of the current situation of governrnmental water environmental auditing results and practices was carried out,and the paths to optimize the governmental water environmental auditing were proposed from two aspects:application system and guarantee mechanism.The main contribution of this study includes three aspects:(1)Thoughts of theoretical studies of governmental water environmental auditing have been expanded.Reviews on the existing literatures,we found that existing studies on governmental water environmental auditing in China usually focus on basic theoretical issues such as water environmental auditing subjects,objectives,contents and standards,while ignoring the decision-making and interactive relations of stakeholders in the practice of water environmental governance.Based on the attributes of water resources as public goods,this paper analyses the behavior of central government,local government,public and enterprise in water environmental governance,and the role of audit institutions in the management and monitoring of water environment,which have expanded thoughts of theoretical studies on the governmental water environmental management and auditing.(2)First-hand information on the current situation of governmental water environmental auditing practice in China was obtained by the questionnaire survey,which laid a realistic foundation for the follow-up analysis of the problems existing in the water environmental auditing in China and putting forward suggestions targeting to optimize the water environmental auditing.There are few investigations and suveys on governmental water environmental auditing in China.This paper designs a questionnaire from four aspects,such as the operations and methods of governmental water environmental auditing,based on investigating to staffsofsome auditing institutions at provincial,municipal,and district level,we get the first-hand information from the staffs viewing on the current situation of governmental water environmental auditing practices,that provides the most direct and objective basis for analyzing the existing problems of governmental water environmental auditing practice in China and putting forward the paths to optimize the governmental water environmental auditing practice(3)Providing strong support for the theoretical research and practical operation in water environmental auditing for the government.Based on the analysis of the announcements of water environmental auditing results from our auditing institutions,and obtaining current situation of audit practice carried out in water environment by a questionnaire survey,this study proposes the paths for our government to optimize the water environmental auditing in China from application system and guarantee mechanism.Our results can not only bring inspirations to the governmental water environmental auditing theoretical research and practice work,but also provide a useful reference for the government and its environmental management departments to improve the policies and regulations of water environmental protection,supervise the fulfillment of the responsibilities of water environmental management departments,and improve the efficiency and level of water environmental management.In addition,the biggest obstacle for the governmental audit application in the field of water environment is lacking of a set of comprehensive water environmental auditing performance evaluation system.In this study,the integrated management of water environment in a river basin is taken as the evaluation object,we constructed a performance evaluation index system of water environmental auditing,which could expand the application of governmental water environmental auditing.