Provisions of the Government of Shaanxi Province on Government Information Disclosure

· Document Number：Decree No. 134 of the People’s Government of Shaanxi Province

· Area of Law： Government Affairs

· Level of Authority： Local Government Rules

· Date issued：05-16-2008

· Effective Date：01-10-2006

· Status： Effective

· Issuing Authority： Shaanxi Province

Provisions of the Government of Shaanxi Province on Government Information Disclosure
(Promulgated by Decree No. 108 of the People's Government of Shaanxi Province on December 10th, 2005 and amended in accordance with the Decisions of the People's Government of Shaanxi Province on Amending the “Provisions of the People's Government of Shaanxi Province on Government Information Disclosure” issued on May 16th, 2008.)
Article 1 These Provisions are formulated for the purposes of increasing the transparency of government work, safeguarding the rights to be informed of citizens, of legal persons and of other organizations and supervising the administrative organs in fulfilling of their duties under law in accordance with the relevant stipulations of laws, rules and regulations as well as in combination of the actual situations of Shaanxi Province.
Article 2 The term “government information” as entitled in these Provisions shall refer to the information recorded and stored in a certain form which has been formulated or obtained during the process of the fulfilling of their duties by the administrative departments at various levels and the organizations authorized by laws, rules and regulations and possessed the functions for the administration of public affairs.
Article 3 The administrative departments at various levels and the organizations authorized by laws, rules and regulations and possessed the functions for the administration of public affairs shall be the disclosers of government information (hereinafter referred to as the ‘discloser(s)') who shall fulfill their duties to disclose government information according to law.
The working office of the people's government of Shaanxi Province shall be responsible for the organization and guidance on the implementation of these Provisions.
The working offices (rooms) of the people's governments at the levels of cities with districts, counties (cities and districts) shall be responsible for the organization and guidance on the implementation of these Provisions within their respective administrative regions.
Article 4 The people's governments at or above county levels shall set up a joint conference system for government information disclosure, this joint conference shall be consisted of the relevant government departments such as the government working offices (rooms) and the government legislative affairs working organs, the supervisory organs and other departments, this joint conference shall be responsible for the research, the coordination and the promotion of the work for government information disclosure.
Article 5 A relevant organ shall be assigned by the discloser to deal with the affairs concerning the government information disclosure of its organization, to take charge of the daily work relative to the government information disclosure of its organization and to establish the working procedures and the system for government information disclosure.
Article 6 Government information disclosures shall follow the principles of legality, authenticity,timeliness, and convenience for the people.
Article 7 The government information formulated by disclosers shall be in the charge of the disclosers to disclose who have formulated that government information; the government information acquired by disclosers from citizens, legal persons or other organizations shall be in the charge of the disclosers to disclose by the disclosers who have stored that government information. Where there are other provisions of laws, rules and regulations on the power limit for the publication of government information, these Provisions shall prevail.
Disclosers shall carry on the investigation for the authenticity of the government information proposed to be disclosed prior to the publication of government information and shall not disclose the government information without the verification.
Article 8 The disclosers shall actively disclose to the society the following government information in accordance with their respective office duties:
(1) Government rules and regulations as well as the documents produced by the discloser concerning the economic and social administration and public services;
(2) The layout, the plan and their implementation situations for the economic and social developments;
(3) The layout such as the systematical layout for the towns and cities in the provincial region, the general planning of cities, the detailed planning of cities as well as the general layout for land use and so on;
(4) The situations regarding the forecasting, occurrence and treatment of the epidemic diseases, disasters or other outburst incidents that impact on the personal security and property safety of the public;
(5) The conditions, criteria and implementation of education, social securities, labor employment, poverty alleviation and preferential allocation;
(6) The situations regarding such aspects as the approval documents, compensation criteria and rehabilitation programs on land expropriation and acquisition the houses demolition and so on;
(7) The main body, the basis and the procedure of the matter regarding the administrative enforcement of laws;
(8) The executive organ, the basis, the condition and the procedures of administrative licensing items as well as the basis and the criteria of administrative charge items;
(9) Open tendering, acceptance of the tender and project schedule of significant infrastructure construction projects;
(10) The situations regarding the public bid attraction and bid hitting for important infrastructure construction items, as well as the situations of the progressing of these construction project;
(11) The auditing situations of government financial budget, final settlement and actual expenditures;
(12) The situations of the administrative functions of governments' working departments at various levels and their adjustments and alterations;
(13) The situations regarding the recruitment and employment of public servants; conditions, procedures and results of publicly selecting and appointing cadres; recruitment and employment of employees other than labor personnel in public institutions with managerial function of public affairs authorized by laws, rules and regulations; and
(14) Other government information to be actively disclosed in accordance with laws, rules and regulations and related provisions of the State.
For the promulgation of such government information as the safety condition of the quality of farm products, the grave situations of epidemic diseases, the grave situations of animal diseases, the important geographical information and data, the statistic information and so on according to law, administrative regulations and related provisions of the State, that promulgation shall be carried out in strict compliance with the stipulated power limit and the provided procedures.
For government information to be actively disclosed, the discloser shall disclose the information within twenty working days upon the production of that information. Where there are other stipulations of laws, rules and regulations on the time limit for the publication of government information, these stipulations shall prevail.
Article 9 Disclosers shall not disclose the government information that may involve the secrets of the State, business secrets or personal privacy.
The government information that involves business secrets and personal privacy may be disclosed upon the obligee's consent to disclose that government information or when the discloser believes that failure to disclose that information probably may cause great influence on the public interests.
Article 10 Government information to be actively disclosed shall be released promptly in one of the following forms or various forms:
(1)Government websites;
(2)The State's comprehensive archives at various levels;
(3)Government bulletin or the news media such as newspapers, periodicals, TVs, broadcasting and so on;
(4)Such facilities as bulletin boards, electronic screens, electronic touch screens and so on;
(5)The service hotlines of government information disclosure;
(6)The government news press conference; or/and
(7)Other forms for the public to acquire prompt and accurate information in a convenient way.
Article 11 Citizens, legal persons and other organizations can apply to the disclosers for the disclosure of the government information other than the information specified in Article 8 of these Provisions; the disclosers shall disclose it according to the application, not including the contents banned by laws, rules and regulations as well as these Provisions.
Article 12 Where citizens, legal persons and other organizations request to acquire other government information beyond the scope of government information to be actively disclosed, that application shall be done in a written form (including the forms of data and electronic messages); where there is indeed difficulty to adopt the written form, the applicant may submit an application orally, and the discloser who has accepted that application shall fill the application form for government information instead. That application shall include the following contents:
(1) Names or designations and contact methods of the citizen, the legal person or the other organization; and
(2) Content descriptions and form requirements of the government information needed.
Where for citizens, legal persons or other organizations to apply to the discloser for such government information interrelated to themselves as the payments of their taxes and fees, the social securities, the medical care and health services and so on, they shall produce their valid identification certificates or supporting documents.
Article 13 The discloser shall give a written reply according to the following situation after the receipt of an application:
(1)Providing such government information to the applicant that conforms to the provisions of Article 8 of these Provisions or should be published according to the application;
(2)Informing the applicant of the reason and the basis for the non-disclosure of the information that is within the scope of the exemption from disclosure;
(3)Informing the applicant that disclosure of the information is beyond the mastering scope of the organ that has accepted the application; telling actively the applicant of the organ if that organ's mastering of the information can be affirmed;
(4)Telling the applicant that the government information applied for disclosure is not existed; and
(5) Informing the ambiguity of the application and asking the applicant to alter or to supply the application.
Article 14 Where the discloser is capable to give a reply at the scene upon receiving the application for the disclosure of the government information, hat reply shall be given on the spot.
Where the discloser can not give a reply on the sport, that reply shall be given within fifteen working days upon the receipt of the application; if it is required to extend the time limit for the reply, consent from the person in charge from the working organ for the disclosure of government information shall be sought for and the applicant be notified, in no case shall the maximum time limit for a delayed reply be more than fifteen working days.
Article 15 Where to provide the government information according to the application, the discloser shall arrange the appropriate time and place, if conditions are permissible, for the applicant to read or transcribe.
Article 16 When the discloser provides the government information according to the application, he or she may not charge other fees except such costs and expenses as from the research, the duplication and the mailing.
The criteria for the discloser to collect such costs and expenses as from the research, duplication, mailing and so on, shall be implemented in accordance with the provisions of the State.
Where a citizen who has applied for the disclosure of government information has indeed some economic difficulty, the relevant fees shall be reduced or exempted by way of that citizen's application and upon the approval from the person in charge from the working organ for the disclosure of government information.
Article 17 The discloser shall not provide government information by means of paid service via other organizations or individuals.
Article 18 The discloser shall work out the contents of government information of his or her organs to be actively disclosed.
The contents of government information shall be adjusted and updated on time.
The contents of government information shall record the designation, brief description and generation date of government information.
Article 19 The people's governments of Shaanxi Province and of cities with districts shall establish and perfecting government news release system and the news spokesman shall represent the government at the same level to release the government information.
The relevant departments of the people's government of Shaanxi Province and the people's governments of counties (cities and districts) shall establish the news release systems for their respective departments and regions.
If there is an outburst public incident happened in the department and region that has not established the news release system, a news release conference may be held to disclose the related situations in accordance with the relevant stipulations from the Emergency Responding Preplan of Shaanxi Province for Outburst Public Incidents.
Article 20 The discloser should make public such information to the society as the organ names, the office addresses, the office hours, the contact methods and so on of the organs responsible for the disclosure affairs of the government information, in order to facilitate the consultation and inquiry by citizens, legal persons and other organizations.
Article 21 Where the discloser is in the violation of these Provisions and has one of the following circumstances, the supervisory organ or the administration organ at higher level shall order to make correction; if that violation is in such a serious condition, the person in charge directly responsible for and other persons directly responsible for shall be imposed administrative sanctions; if a crime is constituted, then the case shall be transferred to a judicial organ for criminal investigation and prosecution according to law:
(1) Promulgating the government information without the verification;
(2) Failure to perform the active disclosure obligation or to update actively the disclosure contents;
(3) Failure to provide or to update the content of the government information from his or her organization;
(4) Concealing from an applicant or refusal to provide for an applicant with other excuses the government information within the scope of disclosure;
(5) Collecting fees in the violation of the provisions; or
(6) Other violations of these Provisions.
Article 22 These Provisions shall be referred to for the implementation in the disclosure of the information produced and acquired during the social public services provided by the public enterprise and institutional units closely related to the people's interests such as the education, the medical and health service, the family planning, the water supply, the electricity supply, the gas supply, the heat supply, the environmental protection, the public transportation and so on.
Article 23 These Provisions shall be in force as of January 10th, 2006.