To monitor government is the basic right of the public. We would like to see the government give out more information, including departmental budgets. The government's budget placed on the Web for public inspection is a step toward more responsible government. This move definitely will be welcomed by the public.

The budget has been a focus of public attention. Departmental budgets are an important component of the government budget, reflecting the constituent elements of government obligation to perform its functions through the income and expenditure of funds. In some developed countries and regions, making public the governmental departments' budget is not new. In Singapore's and Australia's government websites, you can easily find details of the various departmental budgets, as well as the previous year's budget plus a comparison of actual revenue and expenditures.

By the end of 2009, the Chinese government resolved to make the budget public. On March 23, Premier Wen Jiabao put forward the budget at the third meeting against corruption of the State Council to promote "transparent government" and to give the public more information about the actual revenues and expenditures of the departments. The publication of the departmental budget is a part of the so-called "sunshine policy" that the Central Government advocated.

Guangdong Provincial Department of Finance in March 2010 published for the first time on its website the 2009 budget and the 2010 budget. The department released the 2009 general revenue budget performance table, and the Guangdong general budget income and expenditure account for 2010.

As for the Central Government, the Land and Natural Resources Departments on March 30, 2010 also published on the web the department's budget. It was the first to do so among many central ministries.

But we still cannot find the SAR's departmental budgets posted on their websites. We would like to see even more transparency from the departments. It is not compulsory at the moment, but if the departments put budgets on their websites, it will help the people to know more about their operations.

I urge the government to ask its departments to post their annual income and expenditure budgets on their websites; this will help to enhance the transparency of the government.

The author is chairman of the Hong Kong Public Governance Association and council member for the Central and Western District.

Perspective

(HK Edition 05/15/2010 page1)