Government and Policy

Pollution to get officials black mark

By Wang Huazhong (China Daily)
Updated: 2011-03-30 07:20

BEIJING - China's determination to ditch the model of unsustainable development - with its cost to the environment and intensive use of resources - got a push from the National Audit Office on Tuesday.

In its mission statement on the implementation of China's 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-2015), the audit office said a key task will be "building a resource-efficient and environmentally-friendly society and enhancing audits on resources and the environment".

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It calls on subordinate authorities to step up audits on land, mines, water and energy resources to disclose disordered development, low-efficiency utilization, waste and damage.

Moreover, auditors at all levels are urged to disclose pollution and environmental hazards and to punish responsible parties for not carrying out environmental protection policies.

Pollution is an ongoing problem in China, according to an earlier report by China Land and Resources News.

Some governments are not determined to control pollution caused when their predecessors were in office and their inaction leaves the problems to irreversibly deteriorate while new pollution emerges, the report said.

Experts told China Daily that the audit system's supervision efforts, if resolutely carried out, would help ease the situation by holding officials responsible.

Wang Shuyi, an environmental law professor from Wuhan University, said the audit supervision is "especially favorable" as the country has yet to establish laws to protect specific environment aspects, such as soil.

However, "without laws, audits, as a means of prevention and remedy, are far from enough to address more than 6.7 million hectares of polluted soil and other pollution in China," he said.

The top audit authority also said in the statement that it would enhance auditing and supervision over loans and aid funds from foreign countries during the next five years, Xinhua News Agency reported.

Audit authorities will strengthen supervision of the borrowing, use, repayment and management of foreign debts in a bid to use foreign capital in an effective and reasonable way, the statement said, without elaborating.

Meanwhile, it will step up auditing over the country's investments and institutions based overseas to safeguard State-owned assets.

Other key tasks the top audit authority has set for the next five years include enhancing the restriction and supervision of government officials' power and facilitating anti-corruption by disclosing graft cases.