How to Strengthen Rural Collective Financial Management? A Full Analysis of Measures and Key Points
The main problems currently existing in rural collective financial management are: inadequate understanding of the issue. In some townships (towns), the "village accounts managed by the town" system has only gone as far as taking back the account records and materials for centralized safekeeping by the township (town) and doing the bookkeeping centrally at a set time, without operating according to the operating mechanism of village accounts managed by the town. The accounting team is unstable and its professional level is low. Financial procedures are incomplete, accounts are not reported in a timely manner, and muddled accounts are a serious problem. The cash management system is not strict, "IOUs" are fairly common, and coupled with the weak awareness of democratic management among the masses, democratic management and supervision become mere formalities. There are also problems such as lax enforcement of the financial disclosure system and poor management of special funds.
The author believes that efforts should start from the following aspects to strengthen rural collective financial management, realize democratic financial management, and regulate the behavior of rural financial revenue and expenditure.
Further raise awareness and effectively strengthen leadership. Great importance should be attached to strengthening and standardizing rural financial management work, leadership should be effectively strengthened, the management system should be rationalized, and specific issues such as village-level financial agency institutions, personnel, and funding should be properly resolved. Financial departments at all levels should include the working funds for village accounts managed by the town and the wages and remuneration of agency accountants in the fiscal budget, arrange a specified proportion of the total fiscal transfer payment for village-level office expenses for use in village-level financial management, and exercise full-process supervision over the management of village collectives' "three assets."
Strengthen the management of collective funds and effectively regulate the behavior of financial revenue and expenditure. All funds collected by village collectives must be deposited in full into the village-level special fund account uniformly opened by the township (town) agency, and it is strictly forbidden to spend directly from receipts, misappropriate funds, or secretly set up small treasuries or off-book accounts. At the same time, villages should establish and improve a democratic financial management group composed of 3~5 villagers elected by the village representatives' meeting to supervise the village-level financial revenue and expenditure.
Improve the various systems of rural financial management and increase the transparency of village-level financial management. In accordance with the requirements of the competent business department, the "four accounts, two registers, and one cabinet" should be fully set up, namely the general ledger, subsidiary ledger, cash journal, deposit journal, labor registration book, relief funds and materials registration book, and accounting archives cabinet. Implement the democratic financial management system, fund approval system, cash management system, and archives management system, so that village-level financial work can move toward standardization and institutionalization as soon as possible. Establish a regular supervision mechanism, implement the separation of revenue and expenditure into two lines, and increase the transparency of democratic financial management.
Increase training efforts, improve the quality of rural financial personnel, and enhance the professional quality of accounting personnel and their conscientiousness in abiding by discipline and law.