Red Cross invites tenders for auditing service

China's largest charity has begun to invite public bidding for its auditing services, a bid to boost transparency and restore its credibility that has been tainted by scandal.

The Red Cross Society of China (RCSC) plans to select five qualified accounting firms to provide services such as annual auditing, auditing on special programs and off-office auditing, according to the notice the RCSC published on the web portal of the Chinese central government's procurement center (www.ccgp.gov.cn) on Tuesday.

The RCSC will receive bids from across the nation for 20 days following the publication of the notice, and the selection process will comply with national regulations regarding government procurement, according to the notice.

The RCSC will publicly announce the five bid winners, which are required to be among the top 100 accounting firms included in the Chinese Institute of Certified Public Accountants.

The RCSC will sign a three-year service protocol with the five firms and assign auditing tasks according to their offer, professional strengths and service level, the notice said.

The move will promote the publicity of the donations to the RCSC and boost the transparency of the organization's financial management, an unidentified chief staff member with the RCSC said, adding that the charity will make more efforts to live up to the public's expectations.

This is the first time for the charity to publicly invite tenders offering auditing services.

Donors and the public have experienced increasing anxiety over the transparency of charity foundations following a string of scandals concerning embezzlement last year.

The most famous scandal revolved around a young women named Guo Meimei, who claimed to work for an organization under the RCSC. She posted many photos of her lavish lifestyle on her microblog earlier last year, prompting speculation that the public's goodwill money might have been tucked away in private pockets.

Of the nearly 4.2 billion yuan (664 million U.S. dollars) in donations raised by the Red Cross in 2011, "personal contributions were few," RCSC Executive Vice President Zhao Baige said at a meeting in December last year.