HED: Watchdog needed to supervise drafting of rules

It is necessary to have a third-party watchdog to supervise and evaluate the governments’ drafting and implementing of important policies and laws, said a Southern Metropolis Daily article. Excerpts:

The State Council required governments of various levels to find reasons for their poor implementation of policies and rules issued by the central government, and vowed to invite third-party watchdogs to supervise and evaluate the governments’ implementation process.

The central government makes policies of principles and relevant departments and local governments are responsible for drafting detailed implementation rules and translate the central authority’s principle and spirit into concrete actions.

But many makers of the implementation rules do not really support the central government’s policies. They instead make the implementation rules just to fulfill their commitments to the central authorities.

For example, to encourage private capital to enter monopolized industries and create competition, the central government issued 36 policies in 2005 and 36 new policies in 2010.

Thirty-six implementation rules were unveiled in 2012 for the oil and telecommunication industries and for the financial sector. But these rules were made by the administrations of these industries who dislike competition from private enterprises.

The rules are not only hard to execute, but they also consolidate some State-owned enterprises’ monopoly in certain fields.

It is necessary to introduce third-party agencies to supervise and evaluate the drafting and implementing of key rules and policies.

The watchdogs must be independent from the government and their conclusions must be able to make a difference and influence decision-makers. There should also be an accountability system for them.