Red Cross Society Opens Donation Information Online

The Red Cross Society of China, one of the country's leading government-sponsored charity organizations, launched an online database last weekend to disclose donation information and provide more transparency to the public. But many netizens say they have already found errors on the current online database.

Let's find out more with our reporter Liu Min.

Information about donations made to the Red Cross Society of China after January 11th, 2010, is now available on the organization's new website database. Citizens can search for donation information by entering donators' names, project titles, or donation receivers' identities.

For example, donations to the earthquake-hit area of Yushu in northwest China's Qinghai Province show donation amounts and how the funds were distributed.
Wang Zhenyao, President of the One Foundation Research Institute at Beijing Normal University, says the database is a good start for Chinese charity organizations to provide more transparent information to the public.

"From now on, charity organizations in China have entered an information transparency era. The Red Cross Society has fulfilled its promise to open such a platform by the end of last month. Other smaller charities tried similar things before, but their impact was quite limited. But as China's largest charity organization, the Red Cross has set a good example for other charities."

The Red Cross Society of China has recently come under fire for how donations have been spent and how much it pays its employees.

The most recent incident that sparked public outrage involved an online microblogger named Guo Meimei who wrote about her personal wealth on her Sina.com microblog. She claimed she worked for the Red Cross Society at first.

Facing mounting public pressure, the organization tried to refute the rumors and offered an explanation to the public. It also promised to establish an online database to provide transparent donation information to regain public trust.

But some clever netizens have detected several errors in the organization's new online database. For example, the database indicates movie star Jet Li donated money to Yushu on a date before the earthquake occurred. Problems like this have aroused public concern and prompted additional questions about the charity's efforts to create an online database.

Wang Rupeng, Secretary-in-Chief of the Red Cross Society of China, says the database is still a work in progress.

"The online database, we believe, is far from mature so far, but this is just like we've thrown out a target for the public to question and provide suggestions to us. We will be sure to improve it step by step."

He also says the organization used to feature a simpler system on its website for only donators to access. They could see when their money was received into the organization's bank account.

But He has promised the Red Cross would improve the system so the public could see where donated funds go and the public would be assured the money is used properly.

Wang Zhenyao of the One Foundation Research Institute at Beijing Normal University says organizations in China must speed up their efforts to make public information transparent.

"Information transparency in many countries around the world is much more advanced than in China. Now we are in the internet age. Especially with online tools like mircoblogs, everyone can access information more quickly. The government bureaus and other organizations such as charity should realize that they can no longer conceal any information from the public. They have to alter their old ways of information control. They should be fully prepared to be questioned by the public at any time."

Wang Zhengyao emphasizes that this is only the start of the Red Cross Association and other charity organizations in China coming under more challenging public scrutiny. He encourages citizens to continue their efforts in watching and questioning authorities-especially the government-to improve information transparency. At the same time, he says this will help them build up credibility among the public.

For CRI, I'm Liu Min.