Government bodies should pay more attention to their faults rather than praising themselves when reviewing their work in releasing government information, according to a report by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

It said many annual reports on government information disclosure were “hollow without concrete content.”

Since the end of 2014, all provincial-level governments and a majority of State Council bodies had submitted their yearly work reports on the release of government information and they had been published on the State Council’s website.

According to the report, many of government departments had mistaken “disclosing government information” for “listing progress and praising themselves.” Some have even given themselves high scores praising their work in information disclosure.

The report said that it was true that many government departments had made progress, particularly in going digital and interacting with the public.

However, it was meaningless for them to submit a yearly report praising themselves. Instead, they should pay more attention to responses from the public and identify their weaknesses in handling information so as to improve government transparency.

Information disclosure is a must for China to build clean government, the report said. It should be recognized by society and written into regulations.

In summarizing the year’s work, governments are obliged to find shortcomings and draw lessons to guarantee people’s right to be informed and better supervised, the report said.

Public opinion should be taken into account in assessing governments’ work on information disclosure, as the public is the audience for the information, it added.

As China steps up efforts to disclose government information, the State Council should also stipulate detailed plans and regulations to guide lower-level governments in the field.

In 2014, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the Communist Party of China stood out by exposing corrupt officials and violation cases.

However, the CCDI emphasized its work by only listing achievements, such as conferences it held and the number of anti-graft cases it handled.

The commission should also collect opinion and probe possible ways to solve problems raised by the public, according to the report.

Some government organs did mention their flaws in publicizing information.

The State Forestry Administration said it “lacks effectiveness in releasing information,” and the National Audit Office critiqued itself, saying it should state information more clearly.

Although these criticisms did not take up much space when mentioned, it was a good sign government bodies were starting to reflect on themselves.