Almost all central government departments and ministries, with the exception of the Ministry of Science and Technology (MST), failed to publish expenses for “overseas trips, vehicles and receptions” by the June 30 deadline set by the State Council, state media reported. The State Council has repeatedly called on ministries to reduce “squandering practices” and be more transparent about their spending on overseas travel, official cars and banqueting, long areas of abuse by officials. However, only MST and the Chinese Academy of Engineering published their budgets for these line items; all other departments cited “technical problems” with publishing the data.