The disclosure of government spending on receptions, overseas trips and vehicle purchases and maintenance has turned out to be a yearly event. This fact points to the importance both the government and the public have attached to the transparency of how taxpayers' money is spent.

The central government departments started to publish information about their 2011 expenditures in these three areas on Thursday, and no doubt the public will again question why a particular department needed to spend so much money on these three areas, or sangong as they are known.

Such questions are natural and people's desire to know how government departments are spending public funds can only help them improve their efficiency.

In fact, the central government reduced budgets for spending in these categories in 2009 and further cut these budgets in 2011. This resulted in the total central government expenditures in these areas in 2011 being more than 100 million yuan ($15.69 million) less than the year before.

However, there continue to be calls for more detailed disclosures of government spending in these areas. This is understandable; the public wants clean and transparent government and want to know that public money is not being squandered.

The pressure public opinion has exerted on both the central and local governments in this regard has had a positive effect on the overall progress of Chinese society. It was unimaginable just a few years ago that both the central and local governments would publish information about their expenditure.

Still, many people have expressed their dissatisfaction that government departments at all levels keep a huge number of vehicles at the public expense. Some local governments have been carrying out reforms to reduce the number of official cars they have. We can now expect that they will do an even better job in spending public money in the near future.

With increasing public concern for transparent governance, the publication of such expenditures may be just the beginning of further government reforms.

(China Daily 07/20/2012 page8)