GUANGZHOU: Five citizens in Rucheng county, Hunan province, took the county government to the Chenzhou intermediate people's court on Monday for denying them access to government information.

The action marked the first time in which a government was sued for failing to disclose information after new national regulations on information disclosure took effect on May 1.

They have asked the court to rule that the county government must reveal the information they requested.

The five people previously worked at a State-owned water plant, but the county's construction bureau signed a contract with a private investor six years ago on behalf of the plant and turned it into a joint venture.

After the establishment of the joint venture, they retired from the company.

The workers challenged the lawfulness of the bureau as a government agency to sign a contract for a company. In response to that, the county government started an investigation but withheld results from the workers.

"The county government finished an investigation into the case in the second half of 2007, which is said to be fair and objective," Huang Youjian, one of the plaintiffs, said.

"We applied on several occasions before May for some details of the investigation, but to no avail."

So, on Friday, the first working day after the information disclosure regulation took effect, they went to the government again.

"The new regulation issued by the State Council has built up our confidence," Huang said. "I think it will be more likely that the county government will have to disclose the investigation details to us this time."

The government rejected their application on the spot.

"The investigation is for the internal reference of the county leaders. It does not belong to what should be made public in the light of the new regulation," an official with the county's publicity department, who identified himself with the surname Fan, told China Daily yesterday.

The official said that the county government had not received any summons from the intermediate court.

"The new regulation will no doubt enable citizens to know about governmental administration while urging the government to improve transparency," Xu Jingcu, a lecturer of public administration at Sun Yat-sen University, said.

"However, further details about the regulation are still needed for the government to clarify what must be made public and what should be kept confidential."

The regulation, consisting of 22 articles, requires all government administrations to make public issues that concern the crucial interests of individuals or organizations, information that requires public awareness or participation, and administrative work procedures.

(China Daily 05/07/2008 page4)