The 'fake openness' of some village governments is hurting plans to expand grassroots democracy and dooming central pledges of greater transparency, a senior Civil Affairs Ministry official said yesterday.
The 1998 Law on the Organisation of Village Committees requires village-level governments to expand democracy and protect villagers' rights through measures such as publicising village accounts and decision-making.
'Our investigators found that some village governments are publicising fraud reports with made-up figures or outdated information,' said the director of the Basic Level Governments Construction Department of the Civil Affairs Ministry, Zhang Mingliang.
'These village-level governments are muddling through their work by giving out partial or false information and releasing files long after decisions are made, thinking that they can cheat villagers in this perfunctory manner.' The department has received a series of complaints from villagers and local media.
Mr Zhang said a national working conference attended by delegates from all provincial governments was conducted in Henan province two months ago to alert provincial authorities to corrupt practices among village governments.
'Our department also sent 'political instructors' to villagers to straighten out their malpractices,' Mr Zhang said.
