Majority Chinese charities don’t disclose financial data

BEIJING - A majority of charity organisations in China - 75 percent - handling billions of yuan in donations, do not disclose their financial information, a media report said Saturday.

A survey said about 431,100 charities in China received 33.2 billion yuan ($4.9 billion) in 2009.

The China Charity and Donation Information Centre under the ministry of civil affairs, which conducted the survey said only 25 percent of the charities operate on a comparatively high level of transparency, the China Daily reported Saturday.

In the survey, even that 25 percent scored just 1.52 points out of a possible 5 in financial transparency.

The survey looked at 99 charities of different natures and scales across China.

Liu Youping, deputy director of the centre, said: “Public pressure is one deterrent. A cost must be paid for information disclosure, after which the charities face more challenging voices from the public.”

He said 42 percent of charities in the country do not even have methods for disclosing information.

Of the 988 people who took part in the survey, 90 percent said they were “not satisfied” with the current level of transparency.