A Study On The Local Government 's Functional Orientation In The Supervision Of Social Insurance Funds

Social security fund is the core of a social security system. To supervise the fund is one of government’s important duties. When the fund is defrauded of, embezzled, poorly invested or operated, it indicates mis-orientated functions of different levels of government. Based on characteristics of China’s social security system and the present situation of social security fund supervision, it is neither reasonable nor practical to attribute all these problems to imperfect system design by the central government and to further expect it to assume all the responsibilities for such function. Therefore, it is very necessary to go back to local governments themselves, with strengths in fulfilling then-supervision duties, to explore ways to how to capitalize opportunities, avoid disadvantages, and mitigate external threats.The article is of research significance to analyze problems in social fund supervision from the level of local government. It is also has practical implications to provide a new perspective to evaluate the performance of different level of governments in this area. With the case study of social fund supervision in Yunnan Province, the article consists of five parts:part one introduces the main concept, research significance, research approach and method, innovation and deficiency; part two makes theoretical preparations for supervision functions of social fund from three aspects:the theories on government regulation, government failure, decentralization of local governments; part three analyzes in detail local governments’supervision functions by applying the strategy-analyzing method of SWOT; part four concludes common experience through analyzing present condition of foreign governments on this aspect; part five advances basic reform approaches and solution for local governments to effectively fulfill their supervision function.In this article, scientific methods on document research, comparison analysis and investigation are employed. Taking local governments as the cutting point, the author studies the issues on government implementing functions of supervising social security fund. It is suggested that, under current circumstances, compared with the central government, local governments have more strengths to carry out the supervision function. To cope with existing weaknesses and external threats, it is practicable to take measures for improvement and prevention. The author then proposes reform approaches for local governments to stick to when supervising social security fund. Concrete solutions are put forward to optimize local governments’functions at present stage.