Legal Process,Government Audit And Local Government Financial Transparency

In early 2014,the Audit Commission convened a national audit work summary meeting.After listening to the audit report of the annual work of the Audit Commission,Premier Li Keqiang pointed out that government audit is an indispensable part of the national governance system and it monitors the use of public finance funds.Maintaining regional fiscal security and preventing the corruption of officials plays an enormous role.The Nineteenth National Congress also pointed out that government audits should be integrated into the overall situation of the modernization of the national governance system and economic and social development.The government audit is an endogenous “immune system” with functions of revealing,preventing,and resisting.It is of vital importance in national governance.The fiscal transparency of local governments is an important indicator to measure the degree of national governance improvement,and therefore will be affected by the government audit.Fiscal transparency is the degree to which the government discloses information about the government's fiscal policies,fiscal budget accounts,and financial plans to citizens.Local government financial transparency is closely related to the quality of government accounting information disclosure.Researching fiscal transparency will put forward new requirements for the preparation and publication of comprehensive government financial reports.This will undoubtedly promote the process of government accounting reform in China.According to the collation and analysis of related periodical documents,this paper uses data from the “China Audit Yearbook” and “China Fiscal Transparency Report” to establish a model for the government based on the sample of 31 provinces,autonomous regions,and municipalities directly under the Central Government of China during the period of 2008-2013.The correlation between auditing and fiscal transparency has been empirically analyzed.And using the latest “2016 Annual Report on the Process of Marketization of Provinces and Regions” by Fan Gang et al.to obtain data on the process of regional legalization,and empirically analyze the relationship between the legalization process and government audit.The empirical results show that in 31 provinces and regions in China,the stronger the effectiveness of government auditing and defense functions,the higher the financial transparency of local governments,and the group inspection results based on samples from the eastern and central and western regions show that in the economically developed regions and In economically underdeveloped regions,the level of legalization has a good role in promoting government audit effectiveness.The study also found that the process of regional legalization through the impact of government audits,that is,the higher the degree of legalization of the region,the greater the role of government audit disclosure and defense functions.According to the empirical results,this paper gives the following suggestions: Accelerate the pace of government accounting reforms,implement more reasonable accrual accounting governmental accounting standards,and truly and fully disclose the relevant accounting information of government assets and liabilities,budget implementation,etc.Government accounting information technology,the reform of the financial reporting system,improve government financial transparency.In order to better play the effectiveness of government audits,auditing agencies can increase the standards for applying for civil service recruitment examinations and regularly audit and assess auditors.The state should also strengthen the legal construction of the region so that it can play the role of the legalization process in promoting government audits and improve the effectiveness of government audits.Increase the autonomy of government audit agencies,improve the rate of rectification of violations detected by audits,ensure the effective implementation of audits,disclose relevant audit information,and improve the transparency of local government finances.