No.29 of 2016 (General Serial No.206):

Real-time Audit Results of the Implementation of Major National Policies and Measures in the 3rd Quarter of 2016

In the 3rd quarter of 2016, firmly establishing and implementing the development concept of innovation, coordination, green economy, opening-up and sharing, focusing on promoting supply-side structural reform and implementation of 5 major tasks (reducing production capacity, cleaning up inventory, deleveraging, lowering cost, and overcoming shortages), the National Audit Office (CNAO) conducted an audit on 1,142 projects of 886 units concerning overall arrangement and use of fiscal funds, implementation of poverty alleviation tasks, deepening the reform of delegating powers, improving regulation and optimizing services, clean-up of enterprise-related charges, and construction of major projects etc. The audit spot-checked RMB342.358 billion funds, which involved RMB105.766 billion central fiscal funds, and traced the rectification of problems found by the audit in the first half year. In the light of the audit results, relevant localities and departments focused on promoting supply-side reform, took the initiative, strongly promoted the implementation of key tasks, earnestly rectified problems found by the audit, and had achieved satisfactory results. However, some policies and measures had failed to be fully implemented. Details are as follows:

I. Rectification of Problems Found in the Real-time Audit in the First Half Year

In the first half of this year, the real-time audit conducted by the CNAO on the implementation of major national policies and measures found 80 typical problems in total in areas including overall arrangement and use of fiscal funds, poverty alleviation funds management, promotion of major projects, and deepening the reform of delegating powers, improving regulation and optimizing services, involving RMB13.564 billion. In the light of trace of rectification, relevant localities and departments paid close attention to problems found by the audit, combined rectification of the problems and comprehensive self-examination and self-correction, strengthened work deployment and overall arrangement and coordination with problem orientation, strictly conducted rectification, improved system construction, and established a sound and sustainable mechanism.

By the end of October 2016, 64 problems had been rectified, 16 problems had been under rectification, and RMB13.079 billion had been rectified (accounting for 96.42%), among which RMB12.251 billion fiscal funds had been revitalized, RMB125 million had been accelerated in arrangement for use, RMB4.4472 million extracted or intercepted poverty alleviation funds had been recovered, and performance of RMB532 million had been promoted due to acceleration of project construction; 12 charging items were ended and canceled (involving RMB164 million), RMB2.4321 million irregular charges were cleaned up and returned, and 7 items of examination, registration, and qualification were canceled.

Some problems remained to be fully rectified mainly because some projects were under construction; the rectification of some problems required collaborative cooperation between multiple departments, and arrangement and coordination were being accelerated; amendment of some policies was in process due to requirement for going through opinion collection and other procedures

II. Results of the Real-time Audit on Policy Implementation in the 3rd Quarter of 2016

According to results of the follow-up audit of the 3rd quarter, relevant localities and departments had earnestly implemented decisions and arrangements of the Party Central Committee and the State Council, focused on promoting supply-side structural reform, deepening the reform of delegating powers, improving regulation and optimizing services, integrated fiscal funds, further accelerated construction of major projects, and facilitated implementation of major national policies.

Guizhou Province, Heilongjiang Province, the Ministry of Land Resources, and the Ministry of Environmental Protection took measures to continue optimizing administrative service, lower corporate operating costs from logistics, quality inspection, intermediary services for mining right administrative examination and approval etc., and cancel entry restriction in emission testing on motor vehicles in use; Jilin Province and Shanxi Province actively promoted the work of supply-side structural adjustment in steel and coal industries and resolution of excess capacity; 6 departments and localities including the National Health and Family Planning Commission, Hebei, Hubei, Shandong, Zhejiang, and Hainan strengthened work of poverty alleviation on health and finance, agriculture-related funds management, clean-up and integration of fiscal funds, cross-province and cross-region medical settlement and so on to overcome shortcomings in social development.

Meanwhile, the audit also found that relevant localities and departments had the problem of insufficient implementation of major national policies and measures, mainly in the following five aspects:

(I) On overall arrangement and revitalization of fiscal funds. RMB2.722 billion fiscal funds in stock from 2013 and previous years had carried over for more than 2 years without being arranged for use or revitalized in time. The funds included risk prevention reserve and long accumulated funds in fiscal special account etc..

(II) On implementation of poverty alleviation polices.

u During the implementation of three poverty alleviation polices including financial poverty alleviation, there were problems including slow implementation process in loan discount of household-reaching poverty alleviation, and insufficient implementation of the living allowance policy for boarding students in compulsory education stage from poor rural families;

u Some localities of the 10 spot-checked provinces failed to fully integrate poverty alleviation funds, involving RMB147 million funds for poverty alleviation via relocation, loan discount for financial poverty alleviation etc.;

u 28 units and 11 people defrauded, extracted or misappropriated poverty alleviation funds by faking contracts, receipts, project amount etc., or took advantage of poverty alleviation work to make profits, involving RMB9.5702 million;

u 32 poverty alleviation projects including poverty alleviation resettlement project had low performance, involving RMB63.7187 million;

u 5 poverty alleviation projects including highway solidification in tobacco industry bases were slow in progress, involving RMB17.089 million fiscal funds.

(III) On deepening the reform of delegating powers, improving regulation and optimizing services.

u 4 qualifications, accreditation and approval items such as qualification for repairer of civil aircraft parts failed to be canceled while they should;

u After the cancelation or downward delegation of 3 administrative examination and approval items, the follow-up management was insufficient or the grass-roots levels were unable to undertake;

u Several localities failed to fully clean up or regulate pre-conditions for administrative examination and approval;

u Utilization rates of several local e-government platforms were low, affecting investment efficiency.

(IV) On clean-up and regulation of enterprise-related charges. Some localities and departments still had problems including irregular charges, charges by taking advantage of power, or irregular charges for intermediary service for administrative examination and approval, involving RMB288 million problematic funds.

u After the state issued explicit order on cancelation, suspension, or exemption, 11 units of 4 provinces continued irregular or excess charges in 9 types of taxes including administrative fees and government funds, totaling RMB141 million;

u 2 units irregularly charged enterprises RMB9.2656 million by taking advantage of administrative power or convenience of their positions;

u 3 types of charges for intermediary service for administrative examination and approval failed to be cleaned up and regulated as stipulated, and RMB135 million intermediary service fees were still borne by enterprises;

u 2 units set up items on their own and irregularly charged enterprises RMB3.0766 million by taking advantage of standard compliance assessment activities.

(V) On implementation of major construction projects. Among the major construction projects spot-checked by the audit, 31 were slow in progress due to uncoordinated planning, slow land acquisition and relocation, insufficient local construction funds etc.. 3 infrastructure projects had been idle or failed to perform as expected after completion.

Attachments:

I. Rectification of Problems Found in the Real-time Audit in the 1st Half Year

II.Specific Measures Taken by Relevant Localities and Departments to Promote the Implementation of Major National Policies and Measures

III. Main Problems Found in the Real-time Audit in the 3rd Quarter

Attachment I：

Rectification of Problems Found in the Real-time Audit in the 1st Half Year

During the real-time audit in the 3rd quarter of 2016, the CNAO examined the rectification of problems found in the audit of the 1st half year. By the end of October 2016, relevant localities and departments had rectified RMB13.079 billion problematic funds, accounting for 96.42% of all problematic funds.

I. Relevant Localities and Departments Actively Took Measures to Implement Rectification

On July 27 2016, Premier Li Keqiang held a State Council executive meeting where he listened to report on audit results of major project implementation by localities and departments and urged timely rectification of problems found in the audit. After the meeting, relevant localities and departments attached great importance to rectification, paid close attention to clear division of responsibilities and work, and quickly implemented rectification.

(I) Strengthening organization and leadership.

Main leaders of relevant localities and departments attached great importance to rectification of problems found in the audit. They organized special meetings to study deployment of rectification, established leading groups of rectification, took the lead in overall planning and comprehensive arrangement, kept abreast of the rectification, and made acceptance inspection of rectification; for some problems involving multiple localities and departments, relevant localities and departments strengthened collaboration between multiple parties, actively reinforced communication and coordination with relevant units while doing a good job in their own rectification, ensuring the rectification to be truly complete and sufficient.

(II) Strengthening rectification measures.

All relevant units conducted self-examination and self-correction according to problems found in the audit. For problems that could be solved in a short time, they listed timelines, inverted schedules, and pushed forward rectification strictly according to the plans; for long-term and systematic problems, they conducted in-depth research, identified the crux of problems, improved systems, strengthened measures, and strived to fundamentally solve problems. The Poverty Alleviation Office of the State Council, together with Sichuan, Gansu and other provinces specifically set up working groups to conduct in-depth research on problems found in the audit, urged all relevant units to implement rectification, and held relevant people responsible in earnest.

(III) Improving long-term mechanism.

All relevant localities and departments actively spread good experience and practices reflected in audit report that promoted reform and innovation, and took rectification of problems found in the audit as a chance to improve evaluation and appraisal mechanism and carry out a comprehensive self-examination in relevant fields, learned by analogy, further troubleshot hidden troubles and weak links, and took measured to strengthen prevention of recurring problems.

II. Details of Rectification

Real-time audit in the 1st half year reflected 80 typical problems in areas including overall arrangement and use of fiscal funds, deepening the reform of delegating powers, improving regulation and optimizing services, and promotion of major projects, which involved RMB13.564 billion. By the end of October 2016, 64 problems had been rectified, the remaining 16 problems were under rectification, and RMB13.079 billion had been rectified.

(I) On the problem of RMB9.428 billion accumulated fiscal funds of 11 projects failing to perform due to belated arrangement for use.

9 provinces including Shandong integrated and revitalized RMB9.385 billion for use on poverty alleviation, education and other projects; Hainan Province, Gansu Province and Liaoning Province accelerated project promotion, and completed disbursement of RMB41.5443 million; another RMB1.8 million would be allocated for use in accordance with project implementation progress.

(II) On the problem of RMB142 million special funds for 3 projects in Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, Guangdong Province, and Fujian Province failing to be used in time after overall planning. The Ministry of Finance, Guangdong Provincial Department of Finance, and the Management Committee of Fujian Pingtan Comprehensive Experimental Zone had recovered all above-mentioned funds.

(III) On the problem of coexistence of shortage and idleness of funds due to insufficient integration of fiscal funds by Linxian County of Shanxi Province.

The Finance Bureau of Linxian County had issued documents to integrate and revitalize RMB16.0872 million funds for poverty-alleviation relocation project and food-for-work relocation project, and accelerated implementation progress of rural housing relocation and management of mining subsidence areas.

(IV) On the problem of irregular charges, service charges of monopolistic business, or repeated charges in duty fulfillment, intermediary service for administrative examination and approval, import and export and other links by some units.

Relevant localities and departments comprehensively suspended or canceled irregular charges, and 3 provinces (Liaoning, Henan, and Guangdong) had returned RMB2.4321 million irregular charges.

(V) On the problem of failure to cancel some evaluation, registration and qualification matters and excess pre-conditions for examination and approval.

The SASAC (State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission) of the State Council, Shenzhen City and relevant localities of Guizhou Province had canceled relevant evaluation, registration and qualification matters; the AQSIQ (General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine) had simplified the pre-examination of production license for industrial products, canceled multiple pre-conditions for approval, optimized relevant examination and approval procedures, and shortened examination and approval period.

III. System Improvement and Development of a Sound Long-term Mechanism

During rectification of problems found in the audit, relevant localities and departments further improved rules and regulations and assessment mechanism. 4 departments (the Poverty Alleviation Office of the State Council, the SASAC, the AQSIQ, and the Civil Aviation Authority) and 5 provinces (regions) (Hebei, Guangdong, Henan, Guizhou, and Inner Mongolia) modified and improved 15 rules and regulations on performance evaluation of poverty alleviation funds, cancellation and downward delegation of administrative examination and approval matters, financial management of departments etc. For instance, the Poverty Alleviation Office of the State Council, in conjunction with the Ministry of Finance, was modifying Measures for Performance Evaluation of Fiscal Poverty Alleviation Funds to improve evaluation indicators including accuracy of fund use and to build a sound long-term mechanism.

Attachment II

Specific Measures Taken by Relevant Localities and Departments to Promote the Implementation of Major National Policies and Measures

I. Reduction of Corporate Costs and Promotion of the Reform of Delegating Powers, Improving Regulation and Optimizing Services

In March 2016, Guizhou Province issued Qiantong Card, which offered toll discount for freight vehicles on expressways within the province and provided additional special offers for key logistics enterprises, leading to a reduction in logistics costs. By the end of September 2016, 430,200 Qiantong Cards had been issued in the whole province, and RMB10.9423 million discount had been offered, involving 95 key logistics enterprises of Guizhou.

Since October 2015, Heilongjiang Province had integrated high-quality technical resources of 23 national and provincial quality supervision and inspection agencies of the whole province to build a public platform for quality services for product quality testing for enterprises, which allowed enterprises to get product quality testing services and report without going out to outside agencies, thus simplifying intermediary service and saving testing costs for enterprises.

Review of exploitation and utilization plan of mineral resources is a pre-condition for approval of mineral resources exploitation, and the review cost had been covered by administrative counterpart since 1999. In June 2016, it was clarified by Notice by the General Office of the Ministry of Land Resources on Changing the Charge Method of Review Cost of Mineral Resources Exploitation and Utilization Plan Licensed by the Ministry of Land Resources (Guotuziting No.908 of 2016) that the review cost should no longer be covered by administrative counterpart but fiscal budget instead. By the end of September 2016, RMB1.45 million costs had been reduced for enterprises.

In July 2016, the Ministry of Environmental Protection repealed Notice on Issuance of Technical Specifications of Pollutant Emission by In-use Vehicles Detection Agencies (Huanfa No.15 of 2005), which was issued by former Environmental Protection Administration, and canceled the entry restriction on agencies running regular detection of pollutant emission by in-use vehicles and personnel engaged in detection of pollutant emission.

II. Intensification of Supply-side Structural Reform and Active Promotion of Cutting Overcapacity

Since 2016, Jilin Province had taken multiple measures such as holding special meetings and introducing relevant guiding opinions and implementation programs to actively promote the implementation of the task of cutting overcapacity, destocking, deleveraging, reducing corporate costs and shoring up weak spots, allocated the task of cutting overcapacity in steel industry to enterprises, projects, and people responsible, properly handled the resettlement of staff, and instructed steel enterprises to cut overcapacity. By the end of August 2016, Jilin Province had finished the task of cutting 1.08 million tons of overcapacity in steel industry for the year 2016, achieving it 3 months ahead of the prescribed national deadline for the whole country.

Since 2016, Shanxi Province had accelerated the promotion of cutting overcapacity in coal industry, and specified responsibilities and work division of departments to push forward task implementation. In addition to bonuses and subsidies from the state, the provincial finance arranged RMB340 million supporting funds for cutting overcapacity, stopped the production and construction of 207 reorganized and integrated coal mines within the province for rectification, re-determined mine production capacity, and conducted production reduction, achieving some initial success of the policy. By the end of September 2016, all 25 coal mines which Shanxi Province had decided to shut down in 2016 had stopped underground mining.

III. Intensification of Fiscal Special Funds Management and Active Promotion of Construction of Weak Spots in Poverty Alleviation, Health Care and Other Issues Concerning People’s Livelihood

Since 2015, Shandong Province had built a fund integration platform on provincial level, which integrated agriculture-related funds on central and provincial levels and allocated them to counties in package, pushed forward on county basis, and established an agriculture-related fund management mechanism with unified policy requirements and management procedures. By the end of September 2016, the province had integrated RMB1.077 billion central and provincial funds for development of modern agricultural production etc., promoted project construction in 140 counties (cities, districts), and improved the performance and efficiency of agriculture-related fund management.

In 2016, Hebei Province issued Guiding Opinions on Financial Poverty Alleviation of Hebei Province, which organized financial institutions to implement one-to-one poverty alleviation on 62 poor counties and linked their tasks with goal completion, and adopted many modes to carry out financial poverty alleviation. Firstly, by providing agricultural insurance and credit fund support for rural families and enterprises by coordinating China People's Insurance Group Co., Ltd to actively pilot financing support for agriculture with insurance funds, and adopting the method of government policy support + insurance fund financing + insurance risk coverage. By the end of September 2016, financing support of more than RMB15 million for agriculture had been issued; secondly, by coordinating the Hebei Branch of Agricultural Bank of China to apply benchmark interest rate for loans to rural families. By the end of September 2016, credit products which had been developed such as Tuopin Loan and Xiaokang Loan had issued more than RMB200 million loans; thirdly, by coordinating Shijiazhuang Equity Exchange to offer 50% discount on fees for listed enterprises from state-designated poor counties of Hebei Province, and offering financing service such as equity pledge and loans for listed small and micro enterprises. By the end of September 2016, 46 enterprises from 30 poor counties had been financing at Shijiazhuang Equity Exchange as listed enterprises.

Since 2015, Hubei Province had been coordinating Hubei Banking Regulatory Bureau and related financial institutions to explore the implementation of the strategy of financial services gridding in the whole province. By building inclusive finance grid workstations and making use of grid working information to screen out poor families and vulnerable groups and support infrastructure construction, development of characteristic industries, and relocation and resettlement of immigration etc. in poor areas. For instance, in 2015, through inclusive finance grid workstations, Hubei Branch of China Agricultural Development Bank authorized RMB800 million loan credit for relocation in Tongcheng County of the province to help lift its poor households out of poverty.

From April to July 2016, for 45 key diseases and 48 sub-key diseases, in addition to data record of people in poverty, the National Health and Family Planning Commission mobilized 800,000 grass-roots personnel engaged in health and family planning to confirm the situations of disease-caused (recurrent) poverty on the basis of households, individuals and diseases, and had built a database for poverty alleviation in health covering 7.75 million households in disease-caused (recurrent) poverty and 19.96 million people in poverty, thus increasing the accuracy of poverty alleviation in health.

Since 2015, Hangzhou City of Zhejiang Province had actively reformed management of fiscal special funds and explored new management models of municipal fiscal special funds. Firstly, 447 policies involving management of municipal fiscal special funds had been cleaned up or integrated, among which 152 were canceled, 148 adjusted or integrated, and 147 retained, with a compression rate of 34%; secondly, special funds had been merged into 3 major categories (industrial development, people's livelihood, and government investment) and 21 sub-categories, and generated management list of municipal fiscal special funds on this basis to clarify departments in charge and budget amount and make them public via the internet; thirdly, by properly allocating funds and concentrating funds on key points, in 2015 and 2016, RMB1.51 billion and RMB1.76 billion, respectively, were carved out of the total budget size of special funds and allocated for key projects and tasks including major infrastructure construction and major system reforms.

Hainan Province actively promoted cross-province and cross-region medical settlement. By the end of September 2016, Hainan Province had signed cooperation agreements on cross-region medical treatment with 223 overall planning areas of 30 provinces (regions, cities) such as Guangdong Province and Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps. Settlement amount of cross-province and cross-region medical treatment had increased from 41 person-times and RMB500,000 in 2010 to 10,912 person-times and RMB48.39 million in 2015.

Attachment III

III. Main Problems Found in the Real-time Audit in the 3rd Quarter

I. On Overall Arrangement and Revitalization of Fiscal Funds

As of the end of September 2016, special project for personnel training in western China of the China Scholarship Council affiliated with the Ministry of Education had had RMB179 million surplus funds, and project of the second national land survey of the Land Survey and Planning Institute of the Ministry of Land Resources had had RMB9.5431 million surplus funds, which had been idle for more than 2 years without being cleaned up in time.

By the end of September 2016, the special account of risk prevention reserve of the Finance Bureau of Guangzhou City, Guangdong Province had carried over RMB1.926 billion balance for more than 2 years, which had failed to be used for repayment of debt stocks first as stipulated.

According to requirements by non-tax revenue management, concentrated income of competent authorities etc. should be turned in to treasury of corresponding levels and included in budget management. By the end of September 2016, the Civil Defense Office, Quality Supervision Bureau, Sports Bureau, Health and Family Planning Commission of Shanghai City had carried over RMB60.5051 million, RMB56.5267 million, RMB23.037 million, and RMB1.3463 million non-tax revenue in the unit’s account for more than 2 year, respectively.

By the end of September 2016, Beichen District of Tianjin City had carried over RMB326 million fiscal funds for more than 2 years with the excuse that compensable land use fees for new construction land should be earmarked.

From 2011 to 2015, the Finance Department of Gansu Province had allocated RMB268 million covered by central budget to Jiayuguan world cultural heritage protection project – a project of protection of the Great Wall’s main body. By the end of September 2016, RMB118 million from central budget had carried over for more than 3 years without being used because the project had been slow in progress due to difficulties in construction etc..

In February 2013, the Finance Bureau of Qianshan District, Anshan City, Liaoning Province received RMB15 million subsidies from central finance for the comprehensive pilot project of modern service industry. By the end of September 2016, the above-mentioned funds had accumulated unused for more than 3 years because of failure to implement the project due to changes in urban planning.

The Finance Bureau of Songyuan City of Jilin Province failed to promptly allocate RMB6.9268 million revenue share from lottery for 2013 to specific charitable social projects such as social welfare and sports. By the end of September 2016, the above-mentioned funds had carried over for more than 2 years without being used.

II. On Implementation of Poverty Alleviation Policies and Measures

(I) Insufficient implementation of 3 poverty alleviation policies and measures including financial poverty alleviation.

(II) Inadequate overall arrangement and integration of poverty alleviation funds in some regions.

Firstly, after issuance of Opinions by the General Office of the State Council on Supporting Launch of Pilot Program for Overall Arrangement and Integrated Use of Agriculture-related Fiscal Funds in Poor Counties (Guobanfa No.22 of 2016), spot checks found that by September 2016, 33 poor pilot counties of Hebei Province, 64 of Yunan Province, 32 of Guizhou Province, and 10 of Hunan Province had not yet formulated programs for overall arrangement and integrated use of funds as required, resulting in slow promotion of overall arrangement and integrated use of agriculture-related fiscal funds in poor counties of the pilot program.

Secondly, due to insufficient overall arrangement and integration and other reasons, by the end of September 2016, spot checks on some counties (cities) in 8 provinces including Qinghai and Gansu found that RMB147 million poverty alleviation funds had been idle for more than 1 year, among which RMB92.6325 million had accumulated for more than 2 years without being revitalized for integrated use in time.

(Amount Unit: RMB10,000)

(III) 28 units and 11 people defrauded, extracted or misappropriated poverty alleviation funds by faking contracts, receipts of expenses, project volume etc., or took advantage of poverty alleviation work to make profits, involving RMB9.5702 million.

(Amount Unit: RMB10,000)

(IV) Because 32 poverty alleviation projects were unrealistic, lacked follow-up management and maintenance or failed to form an interest linking mechanism with poor households etc., after completion, they were idle, abandoned or had low survival rates during cultivation and breeding. The projects delivered low performance, failed to achieve the expected poverty alleviation results, or even turned into loss and waste, involving RMB63.7187 million funds.

(Amount Unit: RMB10,000)

(V) Promotion of 5 poverty alleviation projects were slow, involving RMB17.089 million funds.

(Amount Unit: RMB10,000)

III. On Deepening the Reform of Delegating Powers, Improving Regulation and Optimizing Services

(I) 4 qualifications, accreditation and approval items including qualification of repairers of civil aircraft parts failed to be canceled while they should.

(II) After the cancellation or downward delegation of 3 administrative examination and approval matters, the follow-up management or undertaking were insufficient.

In October 2015, the State Council issued documents which canceled qualification examination on designated medical institutions for basic medical insurance and qualification examination on designated retail pharmacies for basic medical insurance. By September 2016, 5 overall planning regions including the Guizhou provincial level, Guiyang City, Liupanshui City, Gui'an New District, Qiandongnan Miao and Dong Autonomous Prefecture of Guizhou Province had failed to promptly formulate and disclose administration measures for local medical institutions, and management of agreements with agencies and medical institutions had yet to be improved.

In December 2013, Shijiazhuang City of Hebei Province delegated the administrative examination and approval item of quarantine of origin plants and quarantine of transported plants and plant products to agricultural management departments of counties (cities) and districts. Because the agricultural management departments of various districts lacked necessary technical force thus were unable to undertake the work, the city’s Agriculture Bureau was entrusted to handle the work. In April 2016, the administrative approval matter was withdrawn to be handled by the Agriculture Bureau of Shijiazhuang City, failing to achieve the expected reform goal of the delegation of this administrative approval matter.

(III) Several localities failed to fully clean up pre-conditions for administrative examination and approval.

In August 2016, the Development and Reform Commission of Aba Prefecture of Sichuan Province, among the approval matters of corporate basic construction and investment projects, still retained 4 pre-conditions for examination and approval matters (planning of river hydropower, authorization of rights of hydropower resource development, compensated use of hydropower resources, power reserved for the prefecture). The above-mentioned matters were not included in Full List of Preliminary Examination and Approval Matters for Approval of Corporate Investment Projects and Basis of Establishment, which was stipulated by Work Program on Simplifying Examination and Approval Matters, Standardizing Intermediary Service, and Adopting Online Interactive Approval System for Corporate Investment Projects (Guobanfa NO.59 of 2014) issued by the General Office of the State Council.

(IV) Utilization rates of several local e-government platforms were low, affecting investment efficiency.

The State Council required that online examination, approval and supervision platform for investment projects should have realized trial operation of vertical connection nationwide by the end of 2015. Spot checks found that from January to September 2016, 11 counties (districts) of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region had not entered any investment project, 45 counties (districts) had entered fewer than 5 projects, and 21 counties (districts) among them had entered only 1 project. Due to failure to realize data exchange with other administrative examination and approval systems, the same examination and approval matter had been repeatedly entered, examined and approved in multiple systems, lowering examination and approval efficiency. By late August 2016, in Hunan Province, 2 counties (districts) including Xinning County and Daxiang District of Shaoyang City had not started acceptance of online examination and approval, and Zhangjiajie City on city level and 3 counties (districts) including Dingcheng District of Changde City, Huarong County and Chaling County had never completed any online examination and approval.

IV. On Clean-up and Regulation of Enterprise-related Charges

(I) 11 units of 4 provinces continued irregular or excess charges in 9 types of taxes including administrative fees and government funds, totaling RMB141 million.

(Amount Unit: RMB10,000)

(II) 2 units irregularly charged enterprises RMB9.2656 million fees by taking advantage of administrative power or convenience of their positions.

(Amount Unit: RMB10,000)

(III) 3 types of charges for intermediary service for administrative examination and approval failed to be fully cleaned up and regulated, and RMB135 million intermediary service fees were still borne by enterprises.

(Amount Unit: RMB10,000)

(IV) 2 units set up items on their own and irregularly charged enterprises RMB3.0766 million fees by taking advantage of standard compliance assessment activities.

(Amount Unit: RMB10,000)

V. On Implementation of Major Construction Projects

(I) Several localities and departments failed to promptly determine design adjustment program, resulting in slow progress of project. Construction of the new Lanzhou to Hezuo City of Gannan Prefecture railway project began in December 2014 with a total investment of RMB10.38 billion and a design speed of 120km/h. In October 2015, Gansu Provincial People’s Government sought approval from China Railway Corporation on adjustment of Lan-He railway’s design speed to 200-250km/h. Because the two parties failed to promptly study and determine the adjustment program of construction standards, by the end of September 2016, only 1 out of 5 sections had completed an accumulated investment of RMB262 million, accounting for 2.25% of the total project budget, and bidding or construction of the rest 4 sections had been suspended for nearly 1 year.

(II) 6 railway projects lowered the completion rate of annual investment plan due to slow progress in land acquisition and demolition. 6 projects, which included the project of interconnection of Han-Ji railway to Jiao-Ji railway, project of capacity improvement of Qin-Shen passenger railway line, project of capacity improvement and reconstruction of Yixian-Chaoyang section of Jin-Cheng railway, project of capacity improvement and reconstruction of Chaoyang-Yebaishou section of Jin-Cheng railway, project of capacity improvement and reconstruction of Xinqiu-Yixian section of Gaotaishan-Fuxin-Jinzhou railway, and Beijing section of Beijing-Shenyang passenger railway line, had an investment plan of RMB8.18 billion for 2016. Due to slow progress in land acquisition and demolition caused by late commencement of work, failure to reach agreements between railway project units and local governments on standards of land acquisition and demolition, and failure to settle temporary land for project construction etc., by the end of September 2016, the above-mentioned projects had only completed 15%, 19.07%, 19.29%, 13.13%, 27.5% and 41.75% of annual investment plan respectively.

(III) Construction progress of some projects was affected due to absence of sufficient local construction funds.

u 7 projects of continued construction of supporting facilities and water-saving renovation at large irrigation areas of Shandong Province in central investment budget had a total investment of RMB249 million, among which RMB122 million funds should be supplemented by cities and counties. Due to absence of RMB92.33 million supplemented funds, the projects which should had been completed in 2014 had only completed 73.9% of their investment plans by the end of September 2016.

u Because of late arrival of supplemented funds, 6 affordable housing projects including Huiminjiayuan community of Anshan City of Liaoning Province had not completed supporting projects including supply of water, power, and heating etc., resulting in a delay of more than 2 years in project completion.

(IV) Progress of 11 construction projects on health, transportation etc. was slow due to program changes etc..

u 8 construction projects on health of Gansu Province within central investment budget had a total investment of RMB106 million and should had been completed by the end of 2015. Due to changes in urban planning and design programs etc., the projects had not been started by the end of September 2016.

u 2 projects including the People’s Hospital of Sanmen County of Zhejiang Province and the general practitioner training base of Zhejiang Province had a RMB461 million investment in total, and were scheduled to be completed in 2014 and 2015, respectively. Due to repeated changes of project design programs and insufficient promotion of project construction by the People’s Hospital of Sanmen County and Zhejiang Province, construction of the projects started after a 2-year delay, leading to serious lag of construction progress. By September 2016, the 2 projects had only completed 36% and 29% of total investment respectively.

u As construction object of the key projects of Yangtze golden waterway construction in the 12th five-year plan by the Ministry of Transport, the project of reconstruction of Xinjinhu bridge of Gao-li waterway dredge project of Wu-Shen line of Jiangsu Province had a budget investment of RMB46.64 million, and was scheduled to be completed in 2014. Because the government of Gaochun District of Nanjing City, where the project was located, repeatedly proposed revision opinions, project construction had not been started by the end of September 2016.

(V) Several projects were idle or failed to perform as expected after completion.

u 551 sets of low-rental housing and 303 sets of public rental housing delivered by Anshan City of Liaoning Province to Lishan District during 2013 to 2014 had not been allocated for use, resulting in idleness of more than 2 years.

u Xiguazhou sewage treatment plant of Jingdezhen City and the phase I expansion project of sewage treatment plant of Leping City in Jiangxi Province had been completed in 2009 and 2014, respectively, and RMB109 million had actually been invested. Due to unfinished supporting pipe network etc., major indicators including sewage treatment volume of the 2 sewage treatment plants failed to meet the expected goal.