In the battle against corruption, people often cheer the heroes who stand up and make a difference. Today, as far as the public is concerned, Li Jinhua has become such a hero.

　　As Auditor General of the National Audit Office, Li delivered a report in late June to the National People’s Congress (NPC) Standing Committee and exposed a number of cases of official misconduct. The cases involve a dozen ministries and state-owned enterprises and lead to huge losses (see cover story). This revelation has shocked the entire nation.

　　Behind the misconducts disclosed by the report, a fact deserving more attention is that some government agencies act more like companies who aim at seeking profits in the market. This factor often results in corruption.

　　From several large cases exposed by the report, malpractice of power is rampant. Government officials dare hold back special financial allocations; they dare use funds for the Olympic Games to build dormitory buildings, distribute allowances and establish companies; they dare spend millions of education budget in feasting; they even dare squeeze and embezzle disaster relief.

　　Certainly, we need heroes like Li Jinhua and more crusades against corruption. However, with the principle of rule of law, we need more systematic supervision instead of sudden and irregular “crusades.”

　　To put an end to these problems, Li’s auditing crusade is not enough. Auditing can only reveal problems after they have happened. Moreover, if problems disclosed by auditing reports were not under thorough investigation, coordinated by judicial or discipline inspection departments, the deterrent effect of auditing would be much different from what they should be. Common people know little about the results of cases exposed last year.

　　Therefore, the ultimate way out is to deepen the reform. Reduce the number of authorities as well as the scale of the government in order to reduce the opportunities for officials to “dip their fingers” into state-owned assets. The NPC is the legislative body and the budgets it passes should not be changed at will. We should also strengthen the supervision function of the NPC and establish strict mechanisms of central and local budget examination, and ascertaining auditing responsibilities. Public expenditure, apart from secrets of national defense and foreign affairs, should be more transparent so that NPC deputies can supervise.

　　The most urgent issue after the auditing crusade is to establish mechanisms to prevent corruption in advance and maintain supervision.

　　By LI JIANGUO