Report: Charity organizations in China lack transparency

Edited and translated by People's Daily Online

According to results of a questionnaire survey on 1,063 netizens, only 8 percent of interviewees are satisfied with the information transparency situation of China's public charity organizations and 76 percent of them said they had never received any information from any charity organization, according to China Charity Transparency Report (2011) published on Dec.29 by the China Charity and Donation Information Center.

Regarding the financial information, which the public cares most, only 3 percent of interviewees said they had received it.

China Charity and Donation Information Center began to develop the charity transparency index system in 2009 and had published charity transparency report annually since then.

This year, 1,000 regional, national or local charity organizations were selected, covering the three main forms of China’s public welfare and charity organizations: the Red Cross system with official background, charity societies, and foundations.

In addition, some private non-enterprise entities and grassroots organizations that perform charitable activities will also be monitored.

Official from China Charity and Donation Information Center said that a number of indicators have been set up for the monitoring system, based on the following four aspects of charity information disclosure: integrity, timeliness, accuracy and convenience for public access.

The highest possible score for each indicator is 100 points. The 1,000 charity organizations, which accepted the investigation, averaged 33 points, with 483 of them above this average line and only 82 of them above 60 points.