Philosophy makes one
wise;history witty.Philosophy makes one clear in mind;histo ry
appropriate of action. There is an old saying:History reveals the
reasons of rise and fall.Therefore,a book of
comprehensive history provides ample informati on of this sort.In
the past few years,I've always been referring to the followin
g:"Turbulenceis preluded by the confusion of examining;stability is
precondition ed on the effectiveness of evaluation".This has been
the law of development of C hinese history from which we should
take lessons.The essence of the word "inspec tion" and "evaluation"
here is auditing and accounting.
History shows that when ever a government set its auditing on a
right track,it w o uld see clear politics,an honest official staff,
hence, a prosperous country. Ot he rwise, it would give way to
corruption and degeneration,in the end, the
decline a nd disintegration of the country.We can
find ready examples in the three Adminis trations of Qing,the
Northern Warlords and Guomingdang in the former half of thi s
century. Any government must make vigorous efforts for a strong and
prosperous country instead of falling into the
rut of the previous dynasties it wants to s ee auditing get onto
the right track, The purpose of compiling the history of au d iting
is not for the accumulation of historical facts, feeding topics for
chatti n g but for the exploration of the reasons of stability and
turmoil, the rise and f all of a country and its
social economy reflected in auditing.Therefore,
history of auditing is a book of information on
the rise and fall of a country and may serve as a
clue to the management of a country from which we can take lessons.
F or this very purpose, Prof.Wen Shuo has compiled this book, the
World History of Auditing.
Presently,China is taking drastic measures for a clear government
against bureau cratism. It is once again advocating the people
oriented idea and emphasizing ec o nomic returns. This demonstrates
its determination to strive for a strong and pr osperous country
and has won popular support. Important as it is,determination i
s only a starting point.In what way will we
combat bureaucratism? How can we brin g about the genuine recovery
of the people-oriented idea? How can we ensure
the r ise of economic efficiency? All these are
practical questions which call for app ropriate and effective
measures instead of mere determination.After reading
this book by prof. Wen shuo, we may find some
source of enlightenment for the soluti on of these
problems.
I always believe that the crux of auditing is accountability
without which there would be no auditing.We must
have a profound knowledge of accountability in ord er to get a good
understanding of auditing.Accountability is a basic concept
not only for auditors but also for the those
serrants of the people who, entrusted by the
people or donators are responsible for work of the
country,government ad ministratio nsand enterprises.Without
understanding this concept, they are likely tobe carri ed away and
even deem themselves as masters of the people, thus lose popular
sup port.
What is accountability? In this book of Prof.Wen shuo, the word is
the basic pro ceeding point of the book. Take China as an
example:the Constitution stipulates that the
people are the masters of the state and own all the power and
resources of the state.The people's
Congress,representing the people, is the supreme auth ority of the
government at all levels. Through the People's Congress at differen
t levels, the people entrust the public owned
state resources to the public serva nts ( People's administration
at all levels and their staff members) who engage
i n the management and administration in accordance with the will
of the people re flected in the yearly budget and the Development
Plan of the National Economy ad o pted by the People's congress at
all levels.According to the theory of law,this
bring about the relationship of trusters and trustees between the
people's congr ess and the people's government at the same
level.Undoubtedly, the latter will t ake up the responsibility as
trustees in the greatest loyalty and fulfil the mis sion entrusted
by the people with the highest efficiency,the lowest cost of reso
urces and the best and quickest returns. While reporting to the
people, they sho uld also accept the auditing and supervision of
the Poll Office at the same leve l. The work of state audit will
proceed smoothly only if the governmetn official s have high
personal quality and a strong sense of accountability. Among those
f inancial men, not a few still hold the view "Finance should not
be subjected to the examining of auditing office
in the same level". It's hard to begin the topi c of accountability
with them.
The concept of accoutability is the preceding point of the work of
auditing.
The major mandate of a state audit institution is to make a fair
and independent reassessment of the reports
submitted by the government at its own level and
of the fulfilment of accountability assessed by
the accounting office. If the resu lt of reassessment shows that
the govern-ment has fulfilled the mandate of the p eople as
expected, the People's Congress at its own level will relieve these
pub lic servants of their responsibility. On the contrary, if it
shows that the gove rnment has largely failed to fulfil the will
and request of the people, a new go v ernment will be elected to
take place of the incompetent one. China and
western countries hold the same view on these
issues though they do differ on the basic issue
as to who represent the people. In modern democratic societies,
state audi t ing is indispensable and even pivotalto democratic
politics. Only those countrie s in which auditing
plays an important role enjoy high degree of democracy;
This has been the history of auditing as well as
the history of democracy.
How can we ensure a good role by auditing?
A large part of the book by Prof.Wen is devoted to the
comprehensive introductio n of the experiences of the major
countries,namely, auditing of all forms must b e ensured by a good
state audit system apart from the firm establishment of
the concept of accountability.
The history of auditing tells us, audit institutions must be
independent of the interference of the trustees
in order to play a genuine role——It will yield
no result if the government handles the
expenditure and management and the same go vernment does the
auditing byitself.Such practice may deepen the distrust of
the people. When a countrydos the auditing which
can not convince the people, it ha s been left nothing which is
convining.
Auditing must be independent of the trustees and the result must be
submitted di rectly to the trusters rather than via the trustees.
In such case, not only can the auditing
institutions make a fair and objective reassessment of whether
the government has fulfilled the mandate of the
people, but also the government can demonstrate
its intention of non-interference of the work, its great loyalty
to the people and hence wintheir trust and
support. As we know, the people are abso lutely practical. We
should never nurse any idealism in this respect. As they wi ll make
judgement of the attitude of their government by their deeds
instead of p olitical promises ( reflected in the
yearly budget and Development of the Nation al Economy). The audit
institutions, independent of the government, will make
an objective reassessment of the accomplishment
of the govermnent and bring it to the public. As
long as it is practical and realistic, the government will be abl e
to enlist public confidence and support. People are more likely to
accept the s hortcomings confirmed by the audit
institutions than the self-praised achievemen t by the government.
Because of this common desire of the two parties, over
90% of the modern audit institutions in the
contemporary world are independent of th e government at all
levels. The independence of auditing institutions constitute s a
precondition of the supervisory role performed by the people over
the govern ment which will get its work known to the public under
the contextand win credit and popular
support.
Presently, the people in China share a common desire, namely, an
unswerving adh erence to the Four Cardinal Principles——upholding
the leadership of the Chines e Communist Party; reinforcing the
dictatorship of the proletarians; following t h e guidance of
Marxism-Leninism and Maozedong thought; sticking to the
socialist road. However we must ponder over the
issue: How can we transform this common de s ire of the people to
the forcible action of the government officials at all leve ls and
from the Programme of the Party to the strict requirements of the
public servants by the Party? For this purpose,
what the public servants do must confor m with these principles so
that the people may be convinced by the action of
the public servants that they are the servants of
the people instead of the masters . In the same line, it is very
clear whether it follows the Principles if the au dit institutions
are subjected to the government at all levels so that the gover
nment may find itself in an swkward position of handling the
expenditure, manage ment as well as auditing all by itself? In this
context, how could the governmen t explain the whole thing to the
people with confidence and win their truset eve n if they didn't
raise any objections? Yet, there are still some who assume
that the existing auditing system helps the
proper handling of the result of auditin g whose underlying meaning
is that the People's Congress has no capacity in
this respect. Suppose we could take no notice of
their ignorance of the role by the People's
Congress, we could never turn a deaf ear to the complainants by the
aud itors nationwide about the difficulties of auditing and
after-handling. Then wha t else still sustain the idea that we must
cling to the present auditing system?
From a historical point of view, the present audit structure does
not conform wi t h the demand for a clear government, the request
of persisting in the Four Cardi nal Principles and the pains taking
efforts for prosperity. Moreover, it is inco m patible with our
efforts to increase the transparency of the government so as
to reinforce the unity of the
people around the central government and win their su pport. I
believe that we will share this view after reading this book by
Prof.We n shuo. I'm completely for the idea that
democracy can not be separated from
law. At present, our
legislature and structure concerning auditing can no longer ensu re
the ac hievement of these objectives as "a highly developed
democracy" and the observa n ce of the Four Cardinal Principles.
It's high time for us to make reconsideratio n.
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