Premier Li Keqiang addressed the State Council’s fourth work conference on clean governance on April 26, and stressed the work on several aspects.

Directly allocated funds should be used as best

This year, the central government kept reducing its own spending to channel more fiscal funds to local governments through transfer payment and made direct allocation of fiscal funds a regular practice with a larger scale in an effort to continuously ensure employment, people’s livelihoods and protect market entities, Premier Li said.

He pressed for better assessment management of fiscal funds to ensure the precious funds can be used in line with policy requirements for major demands and key domains.

Fiscal departments should improve the fund monitor system to cover the whole process and the entire chain, the Premier said.

As most of the direct funds from the central government now have already been channeled to local governments, provincial governments should enlarge the allocation scope of fiscal funds in light of local conditions, and amplify fiscal support at lower levels, the Premier added.

Real-name records for the use of direct fiscal funds should be kept to show clear money flow details and verifiable accounts, the Premier said, urging efforts to enhance auditing, supervision and follow-up evaluation of the fiscal funds.

While highlighting the best use of direct funds, the Premier added that irregularities, such as fraudulent claims, withholding funds or diverting funds for non-designated purposes, will be seriously dealt with.

Open and transparent tax cut and fee reduction

Tax cuts and fee reduction policies must be open and transparent for enterprises. During the implementation of tax cut policies, procedures for the necessary application and affirmation process should not be too complicated, otherwise it would be difficult for enterprises to benefit from the policies and in the worst case, corruption might happen, the Premier warned.

He said policy implementation of tax cuts and fee reduction must uphold the concept of serving the people, with more efforts in introducing and promoting the policies and necessary moves to help micro and small businesses learn about and understand the policies.

Meanwhile, the check and approval process needs to be simplified to ensure enterprises can enjoy all the benefits and full implementation of the policies.

Illegal charges on enterprises should be handled

Illegal charges will be handled seriously, said the Premier.

Problems such as arbitrary charges, fines and apportionment still exist, which will not only increase the burdens of market entities and erode the effects of tax cut and fee reduction policies, but also lead to corruption, he said.

Premier Li urged solid efforts to remove illegal charges on enterprises. All regions and related departments are not allowed to reap benefits from the people, he said.

Crackdown on medical insurance fraud

The Premier pressed for stricter regulation on utilizing medical insurance fund.

In recent years, medical insurance fraud was not rare. Healthy people were hired for hospitalization, more-than-needed drugs were prescribed to resell, and medical insurance cards were used to buy daily essentials, Premier Li noted.

A slew of measures were deployed in 2021, he said. This year, a general support mechanism to cover outpatient medical bills under employee basic medical insurance and inter-provincial on-the-spot settlement of outpatient bills through individual accounts for basic medical insurance will benefit more people, with stricter requirements on medical insurance fund regulation.

He stressed further efforts should be made to standardize medical institutions' diagnosis, treatment, and charges, and illegal medical insurance expenses should be seriously dealt with. Centralized volume-based procurement of high-value drugs and medical consumables should become a systematic and regular procedure to ease patients' burden and raise medical insurance funds' efficiency, Premier Li said.

Government should continue to tighten its belt

Despite increasing fiscal revenue, the government should stay frugal for people's welfare, the Premier said. Without the issuance of the special treasury bonds for epidemic control this year, the deficit ratio will see a decrease, and financial strain will still remain with the government, especially local authorities at the grassroots-level.

He said financial departments at all levels should tighten budget regulation, forbid over-budget or non-budget expenditures, cut non-urgent and non-rigid expenditures and optimize the expenditure structure.

Meanwhile, the government should further safeguard employment, people's well-being and market entities, and guarantee key expenditures on salaries and operations in grassroots-level regions, Premier Li said.

Wage arrears lingering in some regions for teachers and migrant workers should be wiped out, and the government should make the most of all stock funds and push forward conservation-oriented organization, he said.

Uphold fairness and uprightness

The government should always prioritize the interests of the country and its people, stay honest and clean, and unswervingly combat corruption, Premier Li stressed.

Leading cadres of the government system should take the lead in honesty and self-discipline, strictly carry out rules of conduct for leading cadres' spouses, offspring and their spouses in running businesses, build a virtuous family, and keep their staff from seeking personal privileges.