Study On The Public Budget Openness Of Local Government In China

Implementing the budget information openness is the basic requirement of the public finances and the important content of government information publicity. Recently, all countries over the world have been making great effort to improve the budgetary transparency. Likewise, China has also promoted budget information openness system at strategic level.In many cities as Shanghai, Sichuan, Guangdong and Shanxi, budget information openness have been gradually carried out, yet the process is still much later than some other countries’.Compared with other cities, Shanghai municipal government has made great achievements in the process of implementing budget information openness, which means 88.7 percent of government sectors in Shanghai have published their budgets in 2014. The disclosure of public funds spending on buying and using government cars, overseas trips and official receptions has reached 87.1 percent in the same year. In order to further promote the budget information openness, Shanghai had conducted a pilot reform to carry out democratic finance management in Xuhui District and implement the budget hearing system in Minhang District.Though gratifying results have been made, it’s undeniable that some problems are still there to find. There are still some troubles in officer initiative, techniques, and budget supervision system.To dealing with these issues, after learning from the experience of domestic and foreign local governments, some suggestions are made as follows. Firstly, enhance theservice awareness of the government. Secondly, view budget information openness system as a whole. Thirdly, perfect the specific operation of budget information openness. Last but not least, establish a supervision system of budget openness.In the process of implementing the budget information openness, the political environment and the political system of China must be taken into consideration, especially the function of National People’s Congress System. Also the ruling environment of the government must be taken into consideration.