Article 1    These Provisions are formulated according to the Audit law of the People's Republic of China and other relevant laws and regulations for the purpose of maintaining and supervising the exercise of audit duties and powers by audit institutions, preventing and correcting illegal or inappropriate specific administrative acts of audit and protecting the legal rights of the audited bodies.

Article 2    The audited bodies may apply for review in accordance with relevant laws, regulations and these Provisions to bodies in charge of administrative review of audit where they believe that the specific administrative acts of the audit institutions have offended their legal rights.

Article 3     The term "reviewing bodies" mentioned herein refers to audit institutions or other administrative bodies which have the power to accept review applications, examine specific administrative acts of audit and give relevant orders thereof.

The term "reviewing organizations" mentioned herein refers to those organizations within the reviewing bodies which are responsible for specific reviewing work.

The term "specific administrative acts of audit" mentioned herein refers to both the mandatory administrative measures of audit and audit sanctions and penalties metered out by audit institutions against acts of revenues and expenditures of the audited bodies discovered in the course of audit which are in violations of relevant laws and regulations.

Article 4    Where the audited bodies disagree with the following specific administrative acts of audit, they may apply to the reviewing bodies for review:
(1) Disagreement with the audit institutions' determination of the nature of violations and the imposition of sanctions thereby such as ordering the audited bodies to turn over revenues that should be turned over, refund revenues illegally gained and return state assets illegally seized within the prescribed time limits;
(2) Disagreement with the imposition of penalties by audit institutions such as fines and confiscation of illegally gained incomes;
(3) Disagreement with mandatory administrative measures adopted by audit institutions such as suspending the appropriation and payment of relevant funds and suspending the utilization of relevant funds;
(4) Other specific administrative acts of audit which may be applied for review or against which legal proceedings may be taken according to explicit stipulations of relevant laws and regulations.

Where individuals disagree with the penalties such as fines metered out by audit institutions, they may apply for review according to relevant stipulations.

Article 5    Reviewing bodies shall not accept applications concerning the following subject matters:
(1)Disagreement with regulations formulated by audit institutions or other  universally binding decisions and orders;  
(2) Disagreement with recommendations put forward by audit institutions related to audit assignments;
(3) Other specific administrative acts of audit which shall not be applied for review according to explicit stipulations of relevant laws and regulations.

Article 6    Review applications concerning specific administrative acts metered out by the CNAO shall fall within the jurisdiction of the CNAO.

Review applications concerning specific administrative acts metered out by resident offices of the CNAO shall fall within the jurisdiction of the CNAO.

Unless concerning audit assignments from relevant accommodating departments, review applications related to specific administrative acts metered out by audit offices dispatched to various departments of the State Council by the CNAO shall fall within the jurisdiction of the CNAO.

Article 7  Unless otherwise stipulated by these Provisions, review applications concerning specific administrative acts metered out by local audit institutions shall fall within the jurisdiction of the audit institutions at the next higher levels.

Article 8     Review applications concerning specific administrative acts metered out by local audit institutions shall fall within the jurisdiction of the people's governments at the corresponding levels where such acts are related to audit assignments conducted in accordance with local rules and regulations.

Article 9    Review applications concerning specific administrative acts metered out by local audit institutions shall fall within the jurisdiction of the people's governments at the corresponding levels where such acts are related to audit assignments made by the above-mentioned people's government beyond the statutory duties of the local audit institutions.

Article 10   Review applications concerning specific administrative acts metered out jointly by local audit institutions and other administrative bodies shall fall within the jurisdiction of their common superior administrative bodies at the next higher levels.

Article 11    Reviewing organizations within audit institutions above the county level (excluding the county level) shall handle review applications that are related to audit assignments of audit institutions at the next lower levels.

Where applications are for review of specific administrative acts metered out by resident offices of the CNAO and audit offices dispatched to various departments of the State Council by the CNAO, corresponding departments of the CNAO shall take charge of the review.

Where applications are for review of specific administrative acts of audit metered out by the CNAO, the Legal Department of the CNAO shall take charge of the review.

Article 12     Reviewing organizations and reviewers shall perform the following duties under the leadership of their respective audit institutions:
(1) To review whether the review applications meet the statutory conditions;
(2) To investigate for evidence and consult documents and materials from the disputing parties, relevant units and personnel;
(3) To organize review of the accepted cases;
(4) To prepare review decisions;
(5) To instruct reviewing work conducted by audit institutions at lower levels;
(6) To understand and research universal problems encountered in the course of administrative review of audit and to put forward recommendations for improvement of law implementation in the administrative aspects of audit.

Article 13  An audited body applying for review according to these Provisions is the applicant; other units with interests involved in the specific administrative acts of audit about which review is applied for may apply for participation in the reviewing process as the third party after due approval is obtained from the reviewing body.

Article 14    Where an audited body disagrees with specific administrative acts of audit metered out by an audit institution and thereby applies for review, the audit institution is the respondent.

Where specific administrative acts of audit are metered out jointly by an audit institution and other administrative bodies, the audit institution and the other administrative bodies are the joint respondent.

Article 15    Where an audited body applies for review to the audit institution with appropriate jurisdiction, such application shall be made within 15 days of the former's knowledge of the specific administrative acts of audit.

Where the statutory time limit of application is exceeded owing to force majeure or other special circumstances, applications for extending the statutory time limit may be made within 10 days of the removal of the relevant obstacles, which shall be submitted to the reviewing body with appropriate jurisdiction for approval.

Article 16    Review applications shall satisfy the following conditions:
(1) The applicant shall be the audited body which believes that the specific administrative acts of the audit institution have directly offended its legal rights;
(2) The respondent is clearly defined;
(3) There are specific review requests and factual basis thereof;
(4) The subject matter is within the scope of applying for review;
(5) The subject matter is within the jurisdiction of the reviewing body supposed to accept the application;
(6) Other conditions laid down by laws and regulations.

Article 17    To apply to the reviewing body for review of certain subject matter, a review application shall be submitted.

The review application shall clarify the following items:
(1) Name and address of the applicant as well as name of the legal representative of the applicant;
(2) Name and address of the respondent;
(3) Requirements of the application and reasons thereof;
(4) Date of applying.

Article 18    The reviewing body shall, within 10 days of receiving the review application, examine the application and make the following decisions:
(1) The review application shall be accepted with written notification thereof sent to the applicant when it complies with these Provisions;
(2) The review application shall not be accepted with the applicant being notified of the reasons thereof when it fails to meet one of the five conditions laid down in Article 16 of these Provisions;
(3) The review application shall be returned to the applicant for relevant addition and correction when it fails to clarify one of the four items laid down in Article 17 of these Provisions.  Failure to make additions or corrections within the prescribed time limit shall be regarded as failure to apply for review.

Article 19     Where the applicant disagrees with the order of not accepting the application by the reviewing body, it may file a case with the people's court within 15 days of the receipt of such an order, unless otherwise stipulated by laws and regulations.  

Article 20      The review body shall, within 7 days of its acceptance of the review application, send the copied version of the application to the respondent.  The respondent shall, within 10 days of the receipt of such a version, submit to the reviewing body materials or evidence related to the specific administrative acts of audit and produce a written response.   Failure to produce such a response shall not influence the work of review.

Article 21    Execution of specific administrative acts of audit shall not be suspended during the period of review.  However, execution of such acts may be suspended under one of the following circumstances:
(1) Where suspension is deemed necessary by the respondent;
(2) Where suspension is deemed necessary by the reviewing body;
(3) Where the people's court orders such suspension of execution at the request of the audited body because, in the view of the court, such request is justified;
(4) Where suspension of execution is required by relevant laws and regulations.

Article 22    Where, prior to the making of review decisions, the applicant withdraws its review application or the applicant agrees to and applies for the withdrawal of its application after the respondent alters the specific administrative acts of audit already metered out, the application may be withdrawn with agreement obtained from the reviewing body and proper records made for relevant files.

After the withdrawal of the review application, the applicant shall not re-apply for review of the same subject matter with the same facts and reasons.

Article 23    The reviewing body shall examine the compliance and appropriateness of the specific administrative acts of audit in accordance with the law.

The basis on which review cases are handled by the reviewing body shall include laws, administrative regulations, local regulations as well as universally binding decisions and orders made and issued by administrative bodies at higher levels according to the law.

The review body shall handle review cases of autonomous localities on the basis of autonomous regulations and specific regulations of the concerned localities.

Article 24    Administrative review of audit shall practice the system of reviewing cases in writing.  However, where necessary, the reviewing body may adopt other means to review cases.

Article 25    After the reviewing process, the reviewing body shall make the following decisions of review:
(1) The specific administrative acts of audit shall be maintained where such acts are judged to be based on clear facts and correct application of laws and regulations and universally binding decisions and orders and in conformity with relevant statutory mandates and procedures;
(2)  It shall be decided for the respondent to make relevant additions and corrections where procedural defects exist in metering out specific administrative acts of audit;
(3) The specific administrative acts of audit shall be revoked or altered while the respondent may be ordered to meter out alternative administrative acts where such acts contain one of the following features:
a.  Obscurity in major facts;
b. Wrong application of laws, regulations and universally binding decisions and orders;
c. Violation of statutory procedures, which has effected legal rights of the applicant;
d. Bypassing or abusing duties and powers;
e. Obvious inappropriateness in the adopted specific administrative acts of audit.

Where certain parts of the specific administrative acts of audit require revocation or alteration, these parts shall be revoked and altered while the reviewing body may also order the respondent to meter out alternative administrative acts of audit for the revoked parts.

Article 26    The reviewing body shall meter out alternative penalties in its review decisions according to relevant stipulations laid down in the Provisions of Audit Institutions on Audit Sanctions and Penalties.

Article 27      The reviewing body shall make its review decisions within two months of its receipt of the review application.  Under special circumstances, the time limit for making review decisions may be extended appropriately.  However, such extension shall not exceed two months while the extension and the reasons thereof shall be notified to the applicant in time.

Article 28    Where the applicant disagrees with the review decisions, it may file a case with the people's court within 15 days of the receipt of such decisions.

Where the applicant neither files a case with the people's court nor implements the review decisions within the prescribed time limit, the audit institution may impose sanctions according to the Provisions of Audit Institutions on Audit Sanctions and Penalties or may handle the situation in the following manners:
(1) Where review decisions are made for maintaining the original specific administrative acts of audit, the audit institution metering out the original acts shall apply to the people's court for enforcement;
(2) Where review decisions are made for altering the original specific administrative acts of audit, the reviewing body shall apply to the people's court for enforcement.

Article 29    Where audit institutions at lower levels make review decisions, they shall submit the copied versions of such decisions to audit institutions at higher levels for filing within one month of their decision making.

Local audit institutions shall, in the middle of and at the end of the fiscal year, report half-yearly and annual administrative review of audit of the concerned localities to audit institutions at higher levels.

Article 30    The authority to interpret these Provisions rests with the CNAO.

Article 31    These Provisions shall come into effect as of January 1, 1997.