CASS Center for the Studies of National Indices of the Rule of Law and the Team of Innovation Project on Indices of the Rule of Law of CASS Law Institute, Assessment Report on Transparency of Government Procurement in China (2016), Beijing: China Social Sciences Press, 2016.

To promote the disclosure of information about government procurement, the CASS Center for the Studies of National Indices of the Rule of Law and the Team of Innovation Project on Indices of the Rule of Law, CASS Law Institute have carried out assessment on the disclosure of information on government procurement in 2016 in accordance with the relevant provisions of the Regulations on the Disclosure of Government Information and regulations on the disclosure of information of government procurement. The Assessment Report on Transparency of Government Procurement in China (2016), published by China Social Sciences as a part of the National Think Tank book series, is the first third party assessment of the disclosure of information about government procurement published in China. The assessment covers three centralized procurement agencies under the Central Government and the financial departments and centralized procurement agencies of 31 provincial-level governments and 93 prefectural-level governments and has been carried out mainly through the analysis of the situation of disclosure of government information by these government organs in the fields of bulk centralized procurement, procurement upon supply of goods by agreement, and the handling of complaints and investigation of violations. The assessment shows that government agencies covered by the assessment have generally been able to disclose information about notices of invitation for bids, notices of winners of bids, the results of handling of complaints and investigation of violations, and some local governments have been actively innovating the methods of disclosure of information. Nevertheless, the general situation of disclosure of government information in the field of government procurement is still unsatisfactory: the situation of disclosure of information by prefectural-level governments is poor, so is the situation of disclosure of information in the field of procurement upon supply of goods by agreement. Moreover, problems such as chaotic channels of disclosure, undue delay in updating the information, lack of details in disclosed information, and non-disclosure of some important information are prevalent. The report points out that, in order to increase the transparency of government procurement, it is necessary to continuously enhance government officials’ awareness of disclosure of information in the field of government procurement, standardize the mechanisms of government procurement, improve the relevant information release platforms, and establish related evaluation and accountability systems.