A new government initiative is being undertaken that will allow the public to see how their donations to charity are being used.

The China Charity Information Center under the Ministry of Civil Affairs has started research on the new program, Liu Youping, the center's deputy director, said at a non-government organizations (NGOs) forum on Thursday.

But he did not elaborate about the details.

As more Chinese are making donations to charity, the use of the money by the government and the NGOs has become a major concern. Many Chinese donated money to help the victims of last year's May 12 Sichuan earthquake, for example.

The center's latest report shows that only 12 of the 28 groups engaging in the rescue work in the aftermath of the Sichuan earthquake have published on their websites how the donations have been spent.

The report also points out that all the information published by the 28 organizations is "not open and transparent," except the source of donation, which is easy to obtain, and does not say anything about how the money was spent.

Less than 40 percent of the 82 national organizations involved in the donations release their annual reports and financial statements online, and six institutes do not even have official websites, the report said.

"Chinese charity groups publish a very low level of online information, especially concerning the use of donation money for Sichuan earthquake," said the report.

But some NGO officials said the charities have to consider the cost of posting the information on their websites.

China Foundation of Poverty Alleviation, one of the major national foundations in the country, has published online its work report on the Sichuan earthquake, but it could only publish information about donations of more than 100,000 yuan ($14,000).

"We are seeking advice from the public on how to publish how we use the micro (small) donations," said Liu Wenkui, the deputy secretary-general of the foundation.

"We need to control the cost as well as meet the demand of the public."

In China, many donations are collected through businesses or various people who coordinate fund drives. About 97 percent of people who give money to charity have no idea which organization has taken their donation and 96 percent are not sure how the money is used, according to a recent poll by the Beijing News and China's popular web forum of 163.com.

Public charity groups have the duty to publish information about how they disperse their donations, Chinese experts said. "They rely on the support and donation from the public. They cannot survive if they do not publish the details about how they use the money," said Jin Jinping, director of the research center on the laws of non-profit organizations with Peking University.