Where to Point the Light

    The practice adopted by Baimiao Township aroused nationwide attention, and appears to be viewed favorably by most. In June 2010, Bazhou District decided to achieve its "make government affairs public" goal in full, extending the initiative to the 48 townships and three urban neighborhood offices under its jurisdiction. Building a "government in the sunlight" amounted to a major project, and one that people pinned their hopes for related reforms on. The model has produced satisfactory results but there are places to improve and perfect.

    Some township governments in the district don't go to the same lengths as Baimiao in itemizing their spending, grouping it under broader items such as office outlay, entertainment and traveling expenses and offering no breakdown. The excuse is the poster has no space for long lists.

    This pretext obviously didn't work for townships like Qing-jiang, that runs an official website where space is infinite. Still Qingjiang withdrew from disclosing financial details on its website; the latest update was posted last October. When inquiries were made, the reply given was that the person doing the uploading had resigned. Asked if the work would resume, the official at the other end of the line couldn't give a definite answer.

    About such back-sliding, officials of the district government point out that people make a priority of their immediate interests, such as policies supporting agriculture, farming subsidies and other benefits to farmers. In response, the district highlights policy implementation and allowance distribution in the government affairs it makes public. And it believes it has done a great job in this respect. Still, some people nurse strong suspicions about the transparency drive. Arguments against it take various forms. For example, that it makes little sense for an economically backward region chronically jostling with deficits, because a light purse makes corruption unlikely. Some complain the experiment has put the district into the uncomfortable position of being in the national spotlight, putting every move by the local government under intense scrutiny all over the country. Still others wonder whether government fiscal data will somehow betray state secrets when the practice is extended to all of the nation's local governments.

    Wang Guoqi feels puzzled by the controversy generated by the practice, defending what Biamiao does as "not only in accordance with policy and regulations, but sanctioned by local support. "Why is there so much opposition in practice?" asks Wang.

The Devil in the Details

    Actually, Baimiao was not the first to forge bravely ahead with transparency measures; but it was the first to do it in enough detail to prove risky. Since 2008 a number of township and village governments in Sichuan, Hainan and Zhejiang provinces have opened their books, but the reason Baimiao stirred up the controversy lies in the unprecedented level of detail in expenditure reports.

    "If every expense is legal, what harm is there in people knowing of it? Why are people unwilling to accept something that is theoretically sound? Is it because doing so might violate some unspoken rules or interfere with hidden agendas?" asks Wang. "It is in the interests of any potentially corrupt persons who exercise power and control money that there be no monitoring, of course; they can spend it as they will. Once there is monitoring, there must be restraint, and that is an anathema to such parties."

    At a meeting of financial officers last year, Li Zhongbin, Party secretary of Baizhong City, advised participants that only full public disclosure can eliminate misapprehensions about government spending, estrangement of citizenry, conflicts among stakeholders, and corruption in office. Wang Guoqi is impressed by Li's arguments. "Although there are competing theories and systems for making disclosures, and the case often happens that some local governments aren't up to making a thorough job of it, the trend is positive and we need only give it time. In the past we didn't even mention transparency, but now we dare to do it. This in itself is progress," affirms Wang.