National Audit Office of China (CNAO) recently issued the Development Plan for National Audit During the 13th Five-Year Plan Period (hereinafter referred to as the Plan). The Plan, the first of its kind, makes arrangements for the objectives, tasks and measures of national audit in the said period.

        The Plan sets up the objectives of audit work in the period. It emphasizes on the full coverage of audit on public funds, state-owned assets and resources as well as accountability performance of leading officials in accordance with the Four-Pronged Comprehensive Strategy, centering on the improvement of quality and efficiency of development, and taking structural reform of the supply front as its main thread. In 2020, according to the Plan, an audit system compatible with the national governance system and modern governance capacity shall be formed. Audit shall play a full role in securing the implementation of major policy decisions, maintaining national economic safety, promoting the deepening of reform, pushing forward the rule of law and facilitating the building of a clean and honest government.

        The Plan proposes the fundamental principles of audit work in the period, with emphasis on adapting to the new normal, practicing fresh ideas and maintaining proper hold on the new situations and conditions emerged in the reform and development. Several aspects, according to the Plan, must be insisted on, namely, the legality, objectivity and problem-oriented thinking of audit, together with fostering innovation and pushing forward the reform.

        The Plan explicitly puts forward the major tasks of audit in the period. Centering on the priorities of the country and the Party while serving the overall situation of reform and development, audit shall be conducted over the authenticity, lawfulness and efficiency of financial revenues and expenditures. As stressed in the Plan, audit work shall attach great importance to safeguarding the fundamental interests of the people, promoting the rule of law, deepening the reform, enforcing the policies implementation, enhancing the quality and efficiency of development, pushing forward the construction of ecological civilization, protecting economic safety, strengthening the party's work style, building a clean and honest government and further combating corruption.

        The Plan also elaborates the objectives and focus in the period in respect of real-time audit, audit of public finance, audit over finance systems, audit of enterprises, audit on people's livelihood, audit of resources and environmental protection, accountability audit and foreign-related audit, etc. Measures are proposed in several aspects in the hope of promoting self-improvement of audit institutions and ensuring the implementation of the Plan, namely, to strengthen and improve audit management, to promote the building of auditors' team, to push forward the construction of audit legal system, to speed up the IT application in audit, to propel and improve the research on audit theory as well as to boost international exchanges and cooperation.