Budget Performance Evaluation

China aims to build an allencompassing budget performance evaluation system in three to five years, according to a statement released on September 25.

The Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council issued a regulation regarding the decision to introduce the system. This marks a key step in expanding the country’s fiscal and tax reform and upgrading governance and budget management.

Under the regulation, the budget performance evaluation will be more “comprehensive,” covering revenue and expenditure of govern- ments at all levels.

The evaluation aims to cover the entire process, from establishing a performance evaluation mechanism to strengthening performance appraisal monitoring.

The regulation also underlines the application of the evaluation results. A third-party institution could be introduced to help with the performance assessment independently if required. The audit and evaluation results will be a major indicator for future budget planning.

The evaluation will apply to budgets pertaining to general public finance, government-managed funds, state capital operations and social insurance investments.

The regulation also highlights the duty of local governments. Heads in charge of key projects will take lifelong responsibility for the budget performance.