Our translation of a story on yesterday’s Guangzhou Daily about the expenditure on the Guangzhou Games:

“It’s unacceptable to just spend money on the Asian Games without telling the Guangzhou People’s Congress Standing Committee (GPCSC) how much the expenditure!”

Today, during GPCSC group discussion about Guangzhou municipal government’s Report on the Organizing Work of the 2010 Guangzhou Asian Games and Asian Para Games, many committee members complained about a lack of information on sources and destinations of the funds for the two Games.

“This is not even a rough number!” said a committee member. Some members proposed that these information be available to the committee no matter how much the expenditure and where the sources of the funds.

“No one is clear about how much the Asian Games will cost,” said Deng Chengming, a committee member, during the discussion. “Some said it will cost RMB 200 billion. But there’s not an official number yet.”

Deng expressed that because the two Games are financed by companies and their funds not included in the government’s budget, the Guangzhou Finance Bureau has no idea about how much they could cost. But the Guangzhou municipal government needs to make this clear to the People’s Congress so as to be supervised by the Congress and society.

“We cannot supervise the Organizing Committee. But the municipal government needs to tell us what’s going on.” Deng also suggest Guangzhou alert the central government about its expenditure on the Games. “Doesn’t the central government have RMB 2 trillion left to spend? Can we fork over some for the Games? Hosting the Asian Games is not only something on the agenda of Guangzhou, but also of the whole nation.”

Earlier on SCMP:

Government departments at all levels across the mainland are expected to go on a spending spree in coming weeks in a final push to use up as much as 2 trillion yuan (HK$2.27 trillion), or about a quarter of the annual fiscal spending budget that remains unused in state coffers.

Analysts warned the frenzied spending would inevitably lead to widespread misappropriation or waste of taxpayers’ money, or in some instances, embezzlement of public funds.

Previously:

• If You Build it, They Won’t Come
• One Year to the Asian Games, Guangzhou Still Not Getting There
• Lacking Sponsors, Guangzhou Asks Beijing for Help on the Asian Games

Links and Sources:

• Guangzhou Daily via NetEase: Guangzhou People’s Congress asks for transparency over expenditure on the Asian Games. (Chinese)
• South China Morning Post: 2 trillion yuan spree looms on mainland (subscription req’ed)