【正文】 itor is not independent of the government. Notwithstanding these problems, the NAO has stepped up the level of public disclosure of audit findings in recent years. In 2021, the NAO for the first time disclosed to the public that serious financial problems existed in four ministries of the central government. This disclosure and the problems exposed attracted much media attention and the phrase “Audit Storm” was used to refer to the disclosure and the issues raised. This “Audit Storm” continued in 2021 and 2021 when the NAO in its annual report disclosed the serious illegal acts in other ministries of the central government. However, although this storm has been useful in drawing attention to some of the problems that had occurred, the level of audit independence means that only a small percentage of the total were exposed. Also, even where problems are exposed, this does not ensure that the same problems will not recur. Thus, the “Audit Storm” has heightened the awareness of the need for government auditing reform. 2. Perceived problems of the current government auditing system Most interviewees believed that the current problems of government auditing have their origins in its relation to the government, ., the NAO is in effect an internal auditing department under the government39。s will — and this is understandable. We argue that if auditing is supposed to satisfy merely the needs of the government, or if government audit is supposed to play a supporting role to governmental work, then the problem of limited audit independence is relatively partial, because government auditing still achieves its main objective. But if the people39。s congress, then the control relationship between the audit office and the government bees a severe problem. An immediate consequence of the lack of audit independence is that the audit report may no longer possess objectivity and fairness and it is therefore less likely to gain the trust and acceptance by the people39。s congress, and also save the face of the audit office. But will the CGO disclose all the issues or important issues then? Will the issues concerning his/her annual report be disclosed as they really are? One can never tell. A directorgeneral from the NAO admitted: In fact, some government officials interfere with the audit office in reporting audit results to the People39。s congress, this problem of a lack of independence and transparency has aroused increased concerns. Since the Constitution (PRC, 1982) and the Audit Law (PRC, 1994a) lack clear and rigid rules on the disclosure of audit results, the content and degree of disclosure in the current auditing system are determined and censored by the government39。 the audit is only applied to government units at a lower level of the hierarchy. That is, the audit rarely examines 5 the responsibility and performance of the government itself or its CGO, and hence the depth, level, and scope of auditing are rather restricted. The following ment made by an interviewee who is a directorgeneral at the NAO is representative of the views. From a legal point of view, there will not be any constraint on the audit of decisions made by higherlevel officials, but in practice you cannot really question them. If in the audit process we discover problems or mistaken decisions made by highlevel officials, we would rather not disclose them. We would assume that the government always does the right thing. That is to say, if the problems arose from decisions made by the government, we will not bother about them any more. How can we supervise our superiors? We are only a department of the government. Some of our interviewees also mentioned that in budget auditing, since the audit does not actually involve the financial responsibility and performance of the government and its CGO, it is unavoidable that many big issues are overlooked or neglected, especially those related to the government or CGOs themselves. Given that many problems result from governmental activity, the audit office can do nothing and the problems can appear over and over again. This kind of auditing exhibits a serious problem of power centralisation. . Budget audi