CASS Law Institute Carries out Assessment on Annual Reports on Government Information Disclosure Work in 2015

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The Regulations of the People's Republic of China on the Disclosure of Government Information provide in Article 31 that “The administrative organs at various levels shall disclose their respective annual report on government information disclosure work before March 31st of every year”. To assess the implementation of this provision, the Center for the Studies of National Indices of the Rule of Law, CASS law Institute has been carrying out monitoring and assessment of the annual reports on government information disclosure work for eight consecutive years. This year’s assessment covers 55 departments under the State Council and 31 provincial-level governments. The preliminary monitoring and assessment shows that this year’s annual reports on government information disclosure work have the following characteristics: firstly, the deadline for the issuance of the report has been generally observed; second, the annual reports on government information disclosure work of all departments under the State Council and provincial governments have been published under the special column “Annual Reports on Government Information Disclosure Work” in the official website of the Chinese government (http://www.gov.cn/zhuanti/2015zfxinxigongkaibaogao/index.htm) so that they can be easily accessed by all interested persons; thirdly, more importance have been attached to the novelty and vividness of the forms of the reports, which include not only texts, but also pictures, charts, and flashes, so as to meet the diversified information needs of the public; and fourthly, the contents of the annual reports become richer and more elaborated, including various statistics on such matters as number of personnel responsible and amount of funds allocated for the work of disclosure of information, the number of pieces of information disclosed at the initiatives of the government, the number of pieces of information disclosed upon application; detailed reasons for non-disclosure of government information, etc.