Local govts pressed to reveal birth control fines

China's health and family planning watchdog has called on local departments to soundly manage family planning fines, urging them to disclose related information to the public.

"Health and family planning departments should fulfil every requirement in the management of 'social compensation fees' in accordance with laws and regulations, including information disclosure," said Yao Hongwen, spokesman with the National Health and Family Planning Commission.

Yao's comments were aimed at recent controversial claims that some local officials have misappropriated family planning fines, or "social compensation fees" to use their official title, for government profits or even personal use.

These fines are paid to local family planning departments by any family that violates China's one-child policy and can amount to tens of thousands of yuan for each extra child.

Further complicating the matter, finance and family planning departments in only 17 of the 31 provincial-level regions on the Chinese mainland revealed the total amount of fines they received in 2012 when prompted by a lawyer, while the rest claimed such data should not be publicized or simply didn't reply.

Meanwhile, none of these departments told how they spent the money.

Citing a regulation on the collection and management of social compensation fees, Yao said local governments have the right to set down fine standards according to their regional realities and these fines must be fully transferred to local government budgets for financial management.

"These fines should be incorporated into the entire local fiscal input and spent on public services and social projects," he said, adding that the money doesn't belong to the earnings of local family planning departments.

According to the spokesman, the costs of the country's family planning work are fully covered by local government budgets, and they should be in no way related to family planning fines.

"As the main body responsible for imposing and collecting social compensation fees, family planning departments at county level should conduct their work and turn in the fines strictly in accordance with laws and regulations," Yao added.

In late August, the National Audit Office said at a meeting that it had failed to pay adequate attention to and hadn't audited certain public funds including the social compensation fee due to limited auditing capacity and technology as well as the fact that such funds involved small amounts of money and were scattered in vast areas.

"The original intention of social compensation fees is to compensate inadequate public resources and control the population, but, in some places, it's become a channel for more births, and more births mean more funds for the government," said Ma Guanghai, a social development professor with Shandong University.

"Is this a policy to dig profits or ensure public benefits?" asked Ma, urging related government departments to publicize information on the fines as soon as possible to gain people's trust.