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Charities do poor job of transparency

By Wang Huazhong and Cao Yin (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-12-04 11:14

BEIJING - A new survey shows 75 percent of Chinese charities handling billions of yuan in donations have done a poor job disclosing their financial information.

Excluding contributions from welfare lotteries, about 431,100 charities in China received 33.2 billion yuan ($4.9 billion) in 2009, according to the 2010 Charity Blue Book.

The China Charity and Donation Information Center, managed by the Ministry of Civil Affairs, released its survey on Thursday saying only 25 percent of the charities operate on a comparatively high level of transparency.

However, even that 25 percent scored just 1.52 points out of a possible 5 in financial transparency, it shows.

The survey looked at 99 charities of different natures and scales from across China.

Liu Youping, deputy director of the center, said relevant disclosure regulations and standards in China are absent and the charities have not developed such habits.

"Public pressure is one deterrent." Liu told the Beijing News. "A cost must be paid for information disclosure, after which the charities face more challenging voices from the public."

He said 42 percent of charities do not even have methods for disclosing information.

Of the 988 people participating in the center's online survey, 90 percent said they were "not satisfied" with the current level of transparency.

Zhou Leliang, general secretary of the Beijing Century Charity Foundation, said only transparent accounts and information can boost donors' trust and confidence, and advance the development of charities.

"Instead, it's the public charity funds that are not transparent and are stoking public dissatisfaction," Zhou said.

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"In the case of Yushu earthquake relief, some donors opted out when they heard donated money and goods were channeled through the Red Cross. That might have something to do with its way of disclosing information."

A public relations manager with the Huamin Charity Foundation, who only gave her surname as Li, argued that survey results based on such small samples "are not creditable and do not reflect the real situation".

She said her foundation complies with all disclosure requirements set by the Ministry of Civil Affairs, and the public sometimes "just want stricter requirements".

"We should also consider what shouldn't be disclosed," she said. "The media report too much of the negative side when the operation of charities becomes a hot topic."