The Ministry of Finance (MOF) has paid intense attention to recent news that some local fiscal and economic figures in Northeast China's Liaoning Province were falsified and the ministry will focus on monitoring such information to prevent and halt data fraud, a statement on the central government's website said Saturday, citing a MOF official.
The People's Daily reported on Tuesday that Liaoning Province admitted that some local fiscal and economic figures between 2011 and 2014 were falsified and fraudulent.
The MOF official said that the central government and the State Council, China's cabinet, has always stressed strict financial and economic principles as well as the accuracy of economic figures.
"Liaoning Province made up fraudulent fiscal and economic figures, violating central government and State Council requirements and some relevant rules, and also affecting the central government's assessment of Liaoning's economic situation," the MOF official was quoted as saying in the statement. "The move misled central government's decisions and harmed the government and the Party's image and authority."
But what should be regarded as positive is that Liaoning Province admitted to the public it had falsified data and directly faced its problems instead of covering them up, the official noted. "The province tried to reflect and spur itself on, and the situation is a warning to other regions."
The MOF will step up efforts to prevent any fraud involving fiscal and economic figures in the future. It will supervise and guide Liaoning's finance departments at all levels to apply rectification measures and form a long-term mechanism.
