"Whose pockets have my donations fallen into?" The query usually getting average Chinese nowhere is becoming easy to answer.

During a press conference Thursday on donation management held by the Ministry of Civil Affairs, officials from east China's Jiangxi Province and northern Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, provided a detailed account of the management and utilization of donations received from Beijingers.

The Chinese capital of Beijing has been designated since 1996 as the funding source of disaster and poverty relief programs for less-developed Inner Mongolia and Jiangxi.

China has formed nine such "donor groups" whose purpose is to provide timely assistance to regions in need.

Yang Yanyin, vice-minister of civil affairs, said, "Keeping donors informed about the use of their contributions is no longer handling a kindle to the sun, but a legal obligation."

According to a notice to reassure the public issued jointly by the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and the State Council in February on the guarantee of basic living conditions of the most vulnerable, donors are entitled to know how their donations are spent.

Qiu Qiang, deputy head of the civil affairs department of Jiangxi Province, has underlined that making this financial information public is crucial to the government's policy of encouraging regular donations.

Most of the donations made in China are related to disaster relief aid drives or "special days" such as International Children's Day and are initiated by charities or governmental organizations.

China, with its vast population of 1.3 billion and its vulnerability to every kind of natural adversities except volcanic eruptions, a regular donating system is crucial to the quality of disaster relief and to the maintenance of relief materials.

The country currently has more than 18,000 donor centers spread over its land area of 9.6 million square kilometers.

In northeastern Liaoning Province, the home of a social security system reform pilot project, approximately 93.8 percent of neighborhood committees have donor centers.

In municipalities like Beijing and Shanghai, donation centers have been set up in government executive departments, large enterprises, residential quarters, major supermarkets and shopping malls.

Even in Zhongnanhai, the headquarters of the Chinese central leadership, there are two separate donor centers for officials, one for the CPC Central Committee, and the other for the State Council, China's governing body.

This year, contributions from high-profile Chinese residents have been continuously funneled to areas like needy Guizhou and Jiangxi, both provinces stricken by either poverty or natural adversities.

"I have never expected that President Jiang Zemin and other ranking Party and government officials, who have to attend to numerous state affairs, would have time to show their loving attention and concern for us," exclaimed a 35-year-old woman farmer named Huang Suzhen of the Mayuan Village at the city of Jinggangshan, a revolutionary base area during China's revolutionary war years in the late 1920s, 1930s and 1940s.

She recently received two packages of clothing, a quilt and 500 yuan (about US$60) in cash from the Zhongnanhai donor centers.

Instilling the concept of donating to the needy people is not as simple as publicizing the example of China's ranking officials.

"The crux of matter is building up confidence in the donor system to ensure fairness and justice," said Yang.

Today, endeavors have been launched to inform the public about the utilization of donations. Such information can be found and learned from bulletin boards of donating stations, distribution centers, in newspapers, on radio and on television.

Some local governments have even produced brief television programs to provide relevant information about the allocation of donated goods, materials and funds.

In Inner Mongolia, to safeguard against embezzlement, local civil affairs departments have adopted a unanimous regulation specifying the time and place of distribution and establishing a special squad to supervise the job.

In order to receive donor aid, a qualified recipient should present his or her identity card or household registration, and a civil affairs official must fill out a distribution notice and a registration form.

Recipients must maintain a duplicate copy of the forms for any possible check and verification.

Subsequently, all details relevant to the total of donations sent to the region, every recipient's name and the specific quantity of goods and money distributed must be posted on bulletin boards.

Fortunately, the strict procedures have produced positive results. In Inner Mongolia, over 18.5 million people have so far made donations, far more than the number of those in need which is approximately 11 million.

Xing Gang, a local civil affairs official, said, "The strong level of regular donations has filled the gap in relief funds and has helped to guarantee the basic living standards of the vulnerable."

According to the official, whenever donated funds are used to purchase relief materials, a public bidding mechanism is introduced, including the participants of prosecutors and auditors.

In early October, a new donation drive was initiated by the Ministry of Civil Affairs to ease the neediness in both cities and villages.

More than 2.02 million items of clothing and quilts are being sent to northwest China's Gansu Province and to north China's Hebei Province.

"Only when our donation management has become transparent and standardized will regular donations become an instituted custom for the people in China," she said.

(Xinhua News Agency November 2, 2002)