Auditing is an important supervision tool over the economy and will play a
special role in guaranteeing that the goals listed in China's 11th Five-Year
Plan are achieved, stressed Premier Wen Jiabao on Tuesday.
He made the remarks in a letter congratulating the opening of the 10th
conference of the Asian Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions (AOSAI) in
Shanghai.
Auditing is irreplaceable in keeping a nation's finance and economy in good
order, enhancing capital efficiency, boosting democratic and legal progress,
promoting a clean government and ensuring healthy economic and social
development, Wen wrote.
China has been making great efforts to improve its auditing system. The new
Audit Law, passed in February and put into effect on June 1, has further
strengthened the supervision authority of audit departments and helped improve
the balance between the budget plan and implementation, he said.
China had seen the number of government departments and institutions,
state-owned enterprises, as well as NGOs dealing with international loans and
assistance, required to be audited grow from about 1,200 in 1983, when China's
National Audit Office (NAO) was first established, to more than 125,000 last
year.
The NAO on Monday released its 2005 annual audit report covering 42
government departments, which found the Beijing Railway Bureau, the State
General Administration of Sport, the Ministry of Civil Affairs and some other
units involved in misappropriation of public funds, unreported sales of assets
and other financial misdeeds.
China has been elected the chair country of the AOSAI, the second time since
China served as chair country from 1991 to 1993, and NAO Director Li Jinhua is
the president of the organization.
"I hope all members can fully discuss and exchange their skills and
experience in auditing during the conference and make contributions to auditing
in their own countries and regions as well as to the Asian economy," Wen said in
his letter.
The AOSAI was established in 1979 and has 43 members, including supreme audit
institutions from the Asian and Oceanian regions.
