The Qingdao Bureau of the Ministry of Finance saved about 200,000 yuan in travel expenses over one year through a systematic approach to fiscal austerity. The bureau treats austerity as a requirement of serving the public, establishing a mechanism centered on awareness, decision-making, execution, and oversight.
On the execution side, the bureau coordinated regulatory tasks across departments to handle multiple tasks in a single site visit. Party group meetings reviewed special inspection budget plans, strictly limiting external experts and prioritizing local hires. Working groups reduced travel days by working overtime and on weekends, which was the main source of the travel savings.
Detailed cost control included recovering overcharged telecom fees and negotiating lower rates, saving about 20,000 yuan. Switching to domestic printer consumables cut costs to 23% of the original. Three regulatory conferences were held in-house at zero cost, and online meetings, training, paperless office, and energy-saving measures were promoted. In resolving historical social insurance issues, the bureau saved nearly 50,000 yuan by providing precise explanations based on past policies and data.
At the decision-making level, all major regulatory tasks and large expenditures underwent collective review by the Party group. Priority was given to supporting central tasks like local government debt supervision and fiscal operations monitoring. The bureau adopted zero-based budgeting and performance management to clarify expenditure boundaries and enforce the principle that spending must deliver results.
To build awareness, the bureau held three Party group meetings to study directives on austerity and revised four internal regulations. Leaders took the lead in enforcing financial discipline. On oversight, two financial self-inspections were conducted, rectification measures from inspections were implemented, and internal control checks plus dynamic monitoring alerts formed a closed-loop management process.