The Chinese government has launched the use of credit cards among some civil servants to cover the spending related to official duties in an effort to bring more transparency to public spending and combat official corruption.
The Ministry of Finance (MOF) said on Thursday the practice would first be carried out from this month in three institutions - the CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, Chinese Academy of Sciences and China Soong Ching Ling Foundation.
The staff with the three institutions would use credit cards to pay for expenses of official duties below 50,000 yuan, such as business trip fare, conference charges and dining expenses, according to the ministry.
"The use of credit cards is much more convenient than cash payment, and transparency for the spending is enhanced as you will leave a record each time you pay," said an MOF official.
The ministry said it would expand the use of credit cards to all government departments and institutions funded by the central budget by 2008.
Such a practice has also been tried by government organizations in Chongqing Municipality, and Sichuan, Shandong, Zhejiang and Jiangsu provinces.
Chinese civil servants mainly pay with cash for work-related spending. Apart from the inconvenience of using a large amount of cash, the lack of transparency and the difficulty in supervision for the untraceable cash payment have created loopholes that led to public money embezzlement.
In 2006, China's prosecuting organs filed and investigated 9,582 commercial bribery cases related to government officials, involving a total of 1.5 billion yuan (195 million U.S. dollars) of illicit money.
Source: Xinhua
|
Comment
Tell A Friend
Print Format
Save Article