To strengthen the building of accounting integrity, establish and improve a joint incentive mechanism for trustworthy accounting personnel and a joint punishment mechanism for those who lack integrity, and further enhance the integrity level of the accounting profession, on April 19, 2018, the Ministry of Finance issued the "Guiding Opinions on Strengthening the Building of Accounting Personnel Integrity" (Cai Hui [2018] No. 9, hereinafter referred to as the "Guiding Opinions"). Recently, a responsible official from the Accounting Department of the Ministry of Finance answered reporters' questions regarding issues related to the "Guiding Opinions."

　　Q: What is the significance of the issuance of the “Guiding Opinions”?

　　Answer: The building of integrity among accounting professionals is an important component of societal integrity-building. Strengthening the integrity of accounting professionals is of great significance for enhancing their awareness of integrity, improving the quality of accounting work, and fostering a sound credit environment.

　　First, it is an important measure for implementing the Party Central Committee and the State Council’s decisions and plans to strengthen social integrity building. In the report to the 19th National Congress, General Secretary Xi Jinping explicitly called for strengthening ideological and moral development and emphasized the need to “promote integrity building.” Documents such as the “Guiding Opinions of the General Office of the State Council on Strengthening the Construction of a Personal Integrity System” (Guobanfa [2016] No. 98) and the “Guiding Opinions of the State Council on Establishing and Improving the Joint Incentive System for Trustworthiness and the Joint Punishment System for Distrustworthiness, and Accelerating the Promotion of Social Integrity Building” (Guofa [2016] No. 33) have set forth clear requirements for social integrity building and provided guidance for strengthening integrity building among accounting professionals. The formulation and issuance of the “Guiding Opinions,” which lay out specific arrangements for integrity building among accounting professionals, represent an important step in implementing the decisions and plans of the Party Central Committee and the State Council.

　　Second, it is necessary to adapt to the new situation in economic and social development. A market economy is a credit-based economy, and a lack of integrity will inevitably jeopardize the very foundation of the market economy. At present, as society as a whole places ever greater emphasis on building integrity, the importance of fostering accounting integrity has become even more prominent, making it a crucial institutional factor that influences accounting practices and their contribution to economic and social development. The issuance of the “Guiding Opinions” to comprehensively strengthen the construction of an integrity system for accounting personnel and to strive to create a positive atmosphere of accounting integrity is a proactive and initiative-driven response to the new demands of economic and social development.

　　Third, it is necessary to adapt to the requirements of the transformation and upgrading of accounting personnel management. For many years, accounting personnel management has been primarily based on the administration of accounting professional qualifications. On November 4, 2017, the 30th Session of the Standing Committee of the 12th National People's Congress adopted the "Decision on Amending Eleven Laws, Including the Accounting Law of the People's Republic of China," thereby abolishing the administrative licensing requirement for accounting professional qualifications. This new development places fresh demands on strengthening accounting personnel management and urgently calls for a transformation and upgrade of accounting regulatory efforts—from a focus on pre-entry industry access management toward a greater emphasis on ongoing and post-event management services. The integrity of accounting personnel reflects their overall adherence to laws, regulations, and professional ethics in the course of performing accounting duties. Strengthening integrity management for accounting personnel will help guide and urge them to uphold professional ethics and carry out accounting work in strict accordance with the law. The formulation and issuance of the "Guiding Opinions" to provide coordinated planning and deployment for the building of accounting personnel integrity is a proactive response to the need for transforming and upgrading accounting personnel management.

　　Q: What were the key stages involved in drafting and issuing the “Guiding Opinions”?

　　Answer: To enhance the scientific and democratic nature of the drafting process for the “Guiding Opinions,” we have strictly adhered to the relevant work procedures of the Ministry of Finance and the Accounting Department, following a rigorous and systematic drafting workflow. The drafting and formulation of the “Guiding Opinions” took more than one year and primarily went through the following stages:

　　First, the stage of research and drafting. Following the issuance of relevant documents such as the “Guiding Opinions of the General Office of the State Council on Strengthening the Construction of a Personal Integrity System,” we, guided by the instructions of the Ministry of Finance’s leadership and after thoroughly studying and comprehending these documents, began to research and draft the “Guiding Opinions.” After systematically collecting and sorting through relevant materials and gaining a detailed understanding of the work being carried out by provincial and municipal authorities—including Tianjin, Hubei, Xiamen, and others—on building integrity among accounting personnel, we went through multiple rounds of discussion and revision to produce a draft of the “Guiding Opinions.” In March 2017, we organized a centralized discussion among personnel from 10 provincial-level accounting management agencies, including those from Tianjin, Hebei, and Heilongjiang, to further discuss and refine the draft “Guiding Opinions.”

　　The second stage is the public consultation phase. In June 2017, we issued the “Guiding Opinions” (Draft for Comments) and publicly solicited comments from the society. At the same time, we sought opinions separately from relevant departments within the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Finance. After issuing the draft for comments, we actively collected feedback, systematically organized and analyzed the feedback received, and made revisions and improvements to the draft, ultimately producing the “Guiding Opinions” (Submission Draft).

　　Third is the issuance phase. In April 2018, the “Guiding Opinions” (draft for review) were reviewed and approved by the Executive Meeting of the Accounting Department and, after being jointly signed by the relevant departments and bureaus within the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Finance, were submitted to the ministry’s leadership for approval and issuance.

　　Q: Could you please introduce the structure and main contents of the “Guiding Opinions”?

　　Answer: The “Guiding Opinions” include general requirements, eight specific measures across three key areas, and relevant implementation guidelines.

　　First, the overall requirements. These requirements establish the guiding ideology and basic principles for strengthening the integrity-building of accounting personnel. They emphasize the need to fully implement the spirit of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, take Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era as our guide, and take cultivating and practicing the core socialist values as the fundamental task. They also clearly state that strengthening the integrity-building of accounting personnel should adhere to the basic principles of government-led initiatives with social participation, sound institutional mechanisms and orderly advancement, as well as combining education with rewards and punishments.

　　Second, specific measures. Eight concrete measures have been proposed from three aspects: enhancing accountants’ awareness of integrity, strengthening the construction of accountants’ credit profiles, and improving mechanisms for joint incentives for those who uphold integrity and joint punishments for those who breach trust. These measures call for reinforcing ethical constraints on accounting professionals, intensifying education on accounting integrity, vigorously promoting the concept of accounting integrity, and elevating accountants’ integrity literacy. It is emphasized that seriously untrustworthy accountants should be placed on a “blacklist,” and efforts should be made to develop a joint memorandum on punishing untrustworthy accountants, thereby achieving mutual exchange, interoperability, and sharing of information. Furthermore, it is necessary to study and formulate management measures for accounting professionals’ credit information, establish and improve a comprehensive credit information system for accountants, and build robust credit profiles for accounting personnel. Special emphasis is placed on providing more opportunities and conveniences for accountants who uphold integrity, imposing restrictions and penalties on those with serious breaches of trust, and strengthening supervision and inspection of accountants’ credit standing.

　　Third, organizational implementation. Specific requirements are put forward for strengthening the organizational implementation of integrity building among accounting personnel, covering aspects such as reinforcing organizational leadership, actively exploring and promoting initiatives, and conducting extensive publicity and mobilization.

　　Q: What are the next steps for promoting the implementation of the “Guiding Opinions”?

　　Answer: The work of building integrity among accounting personnel has attracted widespread social attention, involves a large number of people, and has broad implications. Therefore, the financial authorities and central supervisory bodies must attach great importance to this issue. They should, based on the actual conditions of their respective regions and departments, make coordinated arrangements, adopt multiple measures, conduct pilot programs first, and proceed steadily and systematically.

　　First, we must carry out extensive publicity and mobilization. The financial authorities and the central supervisory bodies should intensify their efforts to promote the building of integrity among accounting personnel, ensuring that both employing units and accounting personnel fully understand the significance, key contents, and basic requirements of the "Guiding Opinions." We should educate and guide accounting personnel to enhance their awareness of accounting integrity and raise the overall level of accounting integrity. It is important to leverage the role of media such as newspapers, radio, television, and the internet by vigorously publicizing model cases of accounting integrity—such as exemplary accountants—and conducting in-depth analyses of typical cases involving violations of accounting integrity. We should commend those who uphold accounting integrity and punish those who lack it, thereby fostering a social ethos that values and practices accounting integrity.

　　Second, we must improve the supporting systems. The financial authorities and central supervisory bodies should, based on the status of integrity-building among accounting personnel in their respective regions and departments, promptly formulate specific implementation plans, refine relevant supporting systems, and actively explore the establishment of a “blacklist” system for seriously untrustworthy accounting personnel, as well as mechanisms for managing accounting personnel’s credit information, correcting errors in accounting personnel data, restoring credit, and implementing tiered management.

　　Third, we must do a solid job of summarizing the pilot programs. The development of integrity among accounting personnel is an important component of the transformation and upgrading of accounting personnel management, involving numerous aspects. It encompasses the collection, use, and tiered classification management of accounting personnel’s credit information; the upgrade and renovation of accounting personnel management systems and their integration with other credit information systems; and coordination and communication with other relevant government departments—all of which make implementation quite challenging. Previously, some regions in Zhejiang Province have already carried out initiatives such as integrity scoring management for accounting personnel, the establishment of credit profiles, and the construction of management systems, achieving certain positive results and laying a solid foundation for the broader effort to build integrity among accounting personnel. Other provincial finance departments and central supervisory authorities should take the issuance and implementation of the “Guiding Opinions” as an opportunity to promptly study and formulate pilot plans, select regions with a strong foundation in accounting personnel management to conduct pilot programs, and promptly summarize and refine successful practices that can be replicated and scaled up, then steadily promote them nationwide.

　　Fourth, we must forge synergistic efforts in implementation. The financial authorities and central supervisory bodies should strengthen their scientific guidance on the integrity-building efforts for accounting personnel within their respective regions and departments, attach great importance to supervision and inspection, promptly address any issues that arise, and ensure that the policies and measures for integrity-building among accounting personnel are effectively implemented and take root. It is crucial to emphasize communication and coordination, seek support from relevant departments to build synergy, explore the establishment of joint working mechanisms, and jointly promote the effective implementation of integrity-building efforts for accounting personnel. Employers should make rational use of credit information on accounting personnel, giving priority to hiring, training, and promoting those with good credit records, while demoting, removing from office, or dismissing accounting personnel who have demonstrated untrustworthiness. Accounting personnel themselves must earnestly study the spirit and essence of the "Guiding Opinions" and put accounting integrity into practice in their daily work. All relevant sectors of society should join forces, create synergies in implementing integrity-building efforts for accounting personnel, and strive to foster a positive atmosphere conducive to integrity-building in accounting.