The Research On Audit Evaluation Upon Economic Policy In China

As the fiscal policy is drafted, initiated and implemented by government finance department in view of the conditions of economic development and social progress for a certain period, it has played an important role in the policy framework in China. Therefore, the audit evaluation upon economic policies featuring, among other things, fiscal policy, is one of the major responsibilities for national audit. This audit evaluation upon economic policies refers to the evaluation made by national audit institutions, who conduct the audit in conformity with the principles of independence and objectivity, in accordance with laws, regulations and audit standards, and with the utilization of audit techniques and methodology, and make the appraisal upon the rationality, timeliness and effectiveness of economic policies based on the stocktaking of gross situation and disclosure of problems and loopholes.In 2008, as a response to the global financial crisis, a stimulus policy was implemented by the Chinese government featuring the launch of a four trillion RMB Yuan infrastructure investment plan, for which the central government has pledged 1.18 trillion RMB Yuan, and the local governments shall cover the remaining gap of funds for supporting related auxiliary projects. By implementing a proactive economic policy, China has effectively warded off the impact of the global financial crisis and maintained steady and robust growth, but meanwhile also encountered a relatively heavy debt burden for the local governments. The initiation and execution of economic policies, will not only mange to regulate the development of economy following the policy targets, but also incur a certain amount of economic and social cost. In some occasions, the lagging or irrational economic policies shall produce the long-term and far-reaching negative impacts. Therefore, it would be very necessary to carry out the evaluation upon economic policies. With the evolution of reforms and the transformation of government functions, the rationality, timeliness and effectiveness of economic policies, especially fiscal policy and measures, has become the focus of the general public. By objectively disclosing the risks in the operation of economy and society, and supervising and scrutinizing the implementation of a series of economic policies and measures, the national audit under the socialism with Chinese characteristics is able to present the truthful effects of economic policies and the problems, and as a result, guarantee the implementation of economic policies.Ever since the establishment of national audit institutions, the evaluation upon economic policies, especially fiscal policy, has been listed as one of the key audit subject matters. The audit practice through more than thirty years in the past, has proved that this kind of audit evaluation upon economic policies has been experienced further development, shown in the better understanding of the audit evaluation, greater influence of the audit evaluation on economic policies and more rational and improved way of organizing the a. However, with the great progress in view, this audit evaluation upon economic policies has still been hampered by various problems, including:the contents and scope of audit evaluation upon are yet to be broadened to cover all related aspects in general; more importance attached to the implementation of economic policies and less evaluation upon the policies themselves and their effects; heavy dependence upon the traditional evaluation model and methodology; poor accuracy of the evaluation results; and heavy dependence upon the data of the audited bodies and statistics.The core issue of this dissertation is to seek the realistic way to promote audit evaluation upon economic policies, by overcoming the difficulties encountered in this audit evaluation practice. Based on this target, this dissertation follows the logic way of thinking, starts from what is it and why is this way, and ends with how is it and how to do it. The dissertation first defines the basic concepts like "audit evaluation upon economic policies" and "synthetical and holistic data analysis based on on-line audit", reviews the audit evaluation practice of the previous thirty years in China, and summarizes the problems and dilemma facing audit evaluation upon economic policies. It also points out that these problems and dilemma are rooted in the poor understanding of the necessity of carrying out evaluation upon economic policies by national audit institutions, uncertainty of the focus and function mechanism for audit evaluation in the operation process of economic policies, and the technical barriers for making a rational evaluation of economic policies against the background of multiple stakeholders and a bewildering array of data. Targeting at the problems both in theory and practice, this study is dedicated to the promotion of audit evaluation upon the whole operation process of economic policies with the adoption of advanced IT measures with sizing up the premise that national audit is the indispensable subject of evaluation upon economic policies. The dissertation first explores the theoretic fulcrum for audit evaluation upon economic policies, then makes an intensive analysis of the importance and function mechanism of audit evaluation upon economic policies, and further carries out the synthetical and holistic data analysis based on on-line audit in order to provide a highly efficient technical way for boosting audit evaluation upon economic policies. The theoretic and technical analysis has been followed by the pilot building up of a framework for audit evaluation upon economic policies backed up by IT measures, and the case study of audit evaluation upon the package of fiscal policies which aims to ensure steady growth and adjust the structure. Finally, this dissertation puts forward the future orientation for theoretic research and audit practice.