Editorials

Fearful feasts

(China Daily)
Updated: 2010-06-26 07:42

The banquet thrown by officials of the Grain Bureau of Shandong province for higher authorities is the latest example of how precious public money is wasted. The grain bureau officials and their guests - 12 in all - splurged 14,810 yuan ($2,173) at a recent dinner.

Officials reportedly squander about 300 billion yuan ($44 billion) of public money on feasts every year. Though the State Council, the country's Cabinet, says the figure is exaggerated, it admits that the amount of public money wasted on entertaining guests is huge.

Public outcry over this misuse of money has not been very strong because of cultural reasons: The officials do not pocket the money but spend it on guests, something Chinese people have been doing for ages.

But throwing away astronomical amounts on food and drinks every year is a gross misuse of taxpayers' money. Since none of the measures adopted till now, from restricting the number of dishes to keeping tabs on officials' weight, has curbed this habit among officials, the government needs to set a limit for an official banquet bill.

Government departments should be asked to limit their spending on hospitality to a certain percentage of their budgets.

Strict supervision is needed on other heads of expenditure, money for which comes from public funds. Expense heads that can be easily manipulated are car purchases, recreation, overseas travel, homes, healthcare and medical recovery.

(China Daily 06/26/2010 page5)