A Study On The Problems And Countermeasures Of The Principal-agent System In Village Accounting Of Shijiazhuang

China is a large agricultural country,and agriculture has always been playing an important fundamental role in the national economic development.With the development of the economy and the progress of the times,the central finance has been increasing its support for agriculture,and more and more funds have been invested in agriculture,while in practice,a series of problems appear in rural financial work,such as: some corresponding policies for supporting agriculture have not been fully implemented,some village cadres occupy the collective assets,the function of accounting supervision weakens,and financial affairs are not completely in public,etc.These issues have become unfavorable factors affecting rural economic development,stability in rural areas,and improvement of rural governance,which are needed to be solved as soon as possible.In order to solve the problems above,our country has always been exploring the rural financial management model.At present,most villages are implementing the principal-agent system in village accounting,in another word,on the basis of maintaining the ownership of rural collective assets,the rights to use rural collective assets,the approval of the rural collective assets,the rights to benefit from rural collective assets(“four kinds of rights”)as before,and on the premise of adhering to voluntary principle,all members or representative members of the rural collective economic organization hold a meeting to vote for approval,then the village committee signs a comprehensive principal-agent agreement in village accounting with the entrusted agency in town,which determines that a rural financial management system of unified system,unified examination and verification,unified accounting,unified disclosure,unified filing("five aspects of unification")shall be implemented by the entrusted agency.This system accords with the present situation of rural development in our country and has been proved to be an effective system of rural financial management to solve the problems in the past years.This system has played an important role in raising the level of finance management in village,strengthening the construction of rural party conduct and integrity,and protecting the legitimate rights and interests of farmers.However,there are still some problems in the operation of the system,which need to be solved.This paper takes the principal-agent system in village accounting of Shijiazhuang as the research object,using asymmetric information theory,principal-agent theory and bureaucratic theory as the theoretical basis.In the mid and late1980 s,some areas of Shijiazhuang spontaneously produced a new form of rural collective financial management--rural finance managed by townships,which gradually and orderly transitioned to a more mature "principal-agent system in village accounting" since 2005.By the end of 2015,15 counties(cities or districts)of Shijiazhuang have implemented the principal-agent system in village accounting,covering 142 townships and 2789 villages,and accounting for 69% and 71% of the total number of townships and villages.These counties(cities or districts)have strengthened village collective asset management and increased the degree of rural financial standardization through implementing the principal-agent system in village accounting.The author have conducted a period of field research in L town,S town,Y town,and conducted a survey on the operation of the principal-agent system in village accounting for the main groups of Shijiazhuang Rural Cooperative Economic Management Station staff,Q District Rural Economic Management Station staff,Q District L Town,S Town,Y Town related department staff.Then the author analyzes and summarizes some problems in the operation of the system:rural finance staff's energy and quality can not meet business needs,financial disclosure is not implemented as requested in the village,the proportion of principal-agent system in village accounting in the township-to-village assessment system is low,the entrusted agency staffing is inadequate and work effectiveness of the entrusted agency staff members varies,the village collective "three types of assets" entrusted by the agency are not comprehensive,the implementation of the supporting management system for principal-agent system in village accounting is not strict.The author obtains the reasons for the above problems through in-depth analysis,mainly including:financial personnel selection and training mechanism is inadequate in the village,cadres of the two rural committees use information asymmetry to evade supervision,both the township cadres and cadres of the two rural committees do not pay enough attention to the principal-agent system in village accounting,assessment and incentive mechanism is inadequate in the entrusted agency,the entrusted agency has not established an adequate management system for assets and resources,the entrusted agency and related departmentsfail to perform their regulatory responsibilities in place.The author proposes targeted solutions in the following six aspects: it's important to improve talent introduction and financial personnel training mechanisms in rural areas,it's important to strengthen supervision of rural financial activities through multiple channels,it's necessary to increase the ideological awareness and value of the township cadres and cadres of the two rural committees for the principal-agent system in village accounting,it's necessary to improve evaluation rules and incentive mechanism for the entrusted agency staff members,the entrusted agency should carry out stocktaking and verification for village collective assets and then establish management system for assets and resources,it's important to strengthen departmental collaboration to form a synergy of supervision of rural financial activities.It can be determined that the implementation of the principal-agent system in village accounting is inherently inevitable through analyzing the course of rural financial development,but as an innovative system,some problems appearing in the operation are also inevitable.This paper expects to provide beneficial reference to improve the principal-agent system in village accounting for Shijiazhuang and other similar areas,and to promote better functioning of the system,so as to adapt to the development of rural economy,to promote implementation of the rural revitalization strategy,to achieve high quality development in rural areas and make benefits for farmers.