Laws of the Guangdong Province

Rules of Shenzhen Municipality on the Publication of Government Information

 (Discussed and adopted at the 37th Executive Meeting of the Fourth Shenzhen Municipal People' s Government; Promulgated by Decree No. 156 of Shenzhen Municipal People' s Government)

Chapter  One    General Principles

Article 1   In order to standardize the publication of government information of this Municipality, enhance the transparency of government work, advance the administration by law, improve the efficiency of administration, these Rules are formulated according to relevant regulations and laws, in combination with the actual circumstances of this Municipality.

Article 2  These Rules shall be applicable to the publication of government information conducted by all levels of people' s governments of this Municipality and their working departments, and the organizations which are authorized by regulations or laws, or are entrusted by administrative organs to fulfil administrative functions and duties (hereinafter referred to as the responsbible units of information publication).

The term of "publication of government information" mentioned in these Rules refers to the activities, conducted by responsible units of information publication, of publicizing normative documents, administrative measures, administrative decisions and the information, such as documents, data and charts, which are required to be publicized according to these Rules and are made, acquired or mastered during the process of fulfilling administrative functions and duties or providing public services, according to the stipulated procedures and methods.

Article 3   The publication of government information shall abide by the principles of being legal and standard, being integrated and unified, being true and effective and being timely and accurate, and shall be consistent with the relevant provision of national secrecy system.

Article 4   The responsible units of information publication shall not charge any other fees than the material cost when they provide government information according to relevant provisions.

Article 5  The general offices of municipal and district people' s governments shall organize and guide the working departments of the municipal and district people' s governments and the street governments in their work of information publication. The leader of each government department shall be the first liable person of his unit for the work of information publication.

Chapter  Two   Items for Publication

Article  6   Every responsible unit of information publication shall make a catalog of its government information for publication, submit the catalog for record to the general office of the people' s government of the same level, and publicize the information included in it actively by proper means.

Article 7  All the citizens, legal persons and other organizations shall, according to these Rules, have the rights of requiring the responsible units of information publication publicizing the government information which are directly related with their interests and may be publicized according to law.

Article 8  The following government information shall not be publicized:

1. the information which is national secret;

2. the information which involves comercial secret;

3. the information which involves personal privacy;

4. the information which is related to the administrative law enforcement, and may affect the activity of law enforcement, such as inspection, investigation and evidence collection, or may threat person' s life;

5. other government information which are prohibited to be publicized according to laws, regulations and rules.

The secrecy institution of reponsible unit of information publication shall examine and determine whether a piece of government information is prohibited to be publicized or not. If the secrecy institution can not ensure whether a piece of government information is national secret or not, the information shall not be publicized until it determine the information' s characteristic according to the provisions of the Law of the People' s Republic of China on Keeping National Secrets.

Article 9  If any item for active publication changes, the responsible units of information publication shall update the relevant information and materials in time, and shall gurantee that the information and materials are effective, acurate and complete.

Chapter  Three  Methods and Procedures for Publication

Article 10  The responsible unit of information publication shall publicize the government information which ought to be publicized according to the provisions of Article 6 of these Rules by more than one effective methods, such as government gazette, news release conference, news media, announcement board and notice letter, according to relevant provisions or actual circumstances, as well as by government website.

Article 11  The responsible unit for inforamtion publication shall publicize government information under its authority in time according to the requirements of the government gateway website of Shenzhen (www.sz.gov.cn).

The responsible unit of information publication shall build a business website (web page) correspondingly, gurantee that their publicized government information are timely, effective and complete, and update the website (web page) in time when the publicized information change.

    Article 12  The responsible unit of information publication shall, according to relevant provisions, publicize the government information which are included in the catalog of active publication completely, in time and within the time limit.

Article 13  Citizens, legal persons and other organizations which require to obtain government information according to the provisions of Article 7 of these Rules shall submit written applications to relevant units by their effective certificates according to relevant provisions.

The written application shall contain the following items:

1. the name or title, identity certificate, contact method of the citizen, legal person or other organization;

2. the descriptions of the required government information;

3. reasons for obtaining the government information.

The applicant shall guarantee that the obtained government information will be used properly.

Article 14  The unit receiving an application shall register it and reply to the applicant in time according to the following rules:

1. if the government information may be publicized, it shall inform the applicant of the methods and ways to obtain the information;

2. if the government information may not be publicized, it shall inform the applicant of the fact and tell him the reasons;

3. if the government information is not under its control, it shall inform the applicant of the fact, and shall tell him the contact method of the organ if it knows what organ has the information;

4. if the government information applied to be publicized does not exist, it shall inform the applicant of the fact;

5. if the content of information applied to be publicized is not clear, it shall tell the applicant to change or supplement his application.

The unit receiving an application of a citizen, legal person or other organization, shall reply to the applicant in writing or by email within 10 working days upon the registration day, except that it can reply to the applicant on the spot.

Article 15  When a citizen, legal person or other organization dissents with the acitivity of not publicizing a piece of government information conducted by a responsible unit of information publication, the relevant unit shall bear the responsiblity of producing evidence, and explain the reasons, legal basis, remedies and time limit relating with its activity of not publicizing the government information.

Article 16  No unit may reply to an applicant on the matter of not publicizing a piece of government information by means of providing disguised compensated service in violation of relevant provisions.

Article 17  The responsible unit of information publication shall establish and improve its information publication procedures and make the responsiblities clear.

Chapter Four   Supervision and Remedies

Article 18   Every responsible unit of information publication shall yearly report its publication work of government information to the competent department of government information publication of the same or upper level. The report shall contain the following items:

1. the overall statistic data of the government information which are publicized by the unit actively and upon applications, and those are not publicized;

2. the statistic data of reviewings, law suits and complaints brought against the publication of government information, and their settlements;

3. the main problems and their solving schemes;

4. other important issues which shall be reported.

Article 19  The municipal and district supervisory departments shall supervise the whole process of government information publication, and shall order the violator to correct his wrongdoing within a limited time if there is a violation.

Article 20  The publication of government information shall accept the supervisions from the deputies to the people' s congress, members of political consultative conference and social public. The municipal and district supervisory departments and the competent departments of government information publication may hire deputies to the people' s congress, members of political consultative conference or eminent persons as supervisors.

Article 21   If a responsible unit of information publication violates any provisions of these Rules, every citizen, legel person and other organizaiton have the rights of complaining to the supervisory department or the competent department of information publication of municipal or district level. After receiving a complaint, the relevant department shall carry out an investigation, deal with the complaint, and reply to the complainant in time.

Article 22  The competent department of government information publication shall yearly carry out comprehensive examination to the work of government information publication, entrust an authoritative intermediary organ to carry out professional evaluation to the publication of governmen information, publicize the results of appraisal and evaluation, and commend excellent units and individuals.

The competent department shall examine the content, updated frequency, and public reflection of publicized government information. The specific standards of examination shall be made separately.

Article 23  If any reponsible unit of information publication commits any one of the following activities, in violation of these Rules, the supervisory department, jointly with the competent department of government information publication shall circulate a critism to the unit, and shall impose disciplinary punishment to its main leader, leader in charge and person directly liable:

1. failing to publicized a matter which shall be publicized within the time limit;

2. publicizing false or incomplete information;

3. failing to publicize a matter which shall be publicized in provided way;

4. failing to update the publicized information as stipulated;

5. failing to provide assistance to relevant unit or individual when he inquires about or copies relevant materials;

6. refusing to made correction to the problem which is required to be corrected by a supervisory or examining organ;

7. disclosing national secret;

8. charging fees inconsistent with regulations;

9. taking revenge on the person who brings forward a complaint or carries out an investigation;

10. committing other activities which are subjected to administrative or disciplinary punishment because of violating the provisions on government information publication.

Article 24   Any responsible unit of information publication which hides government information, provides false government information, or discloses commercial secrets or personal privacy and thus causes economic loss to any citizen, legal person or other organization, shall pay compensation according to law.

Article 25   Any citizen, legal person or other organization which thinks that the activity, refusing to publicize the government information which has close relation with its interests, of a reponsible unit of information publication infringes upon its legal interests, may apply for review according to the relevant provions of the Law of the People' s Republic of China on Administrative Review,

Chapter  Five   Supplementary Provisions

Article 26   The responsible unit of information publication shall make specifice implementing rules for publicizing its government information according to these Rules and in combination with its actual circumstances.