More people's voices in govt evaluation

(China Daily)
Updated: 2009-04-28 08:51

What besides money can be used to gauge the performance of local governments? The answer: People's voices.

A new evaluation system for government performance proposed by a group of experts over the weekend has asked for a more scientific and transparent mechanism which includes more views from the general public.

"Economic growth should not be the only measure," Sang Zhulai, a researcher with the Ministry of Personnel who heads a subject group on the reform, was quoted as saying by the China Youth Daily yesterday.

"There should be a comprehensive evaluation system focusing on people's livelihood and social development."

Economic growth has long been the key, if not the only, index to evaluate how well a government is working. But such a mechanism has drawn increased criticism in recent years as it doesn't reflect the whole picture.

After seven years of research, the group released the country's first report on administrative performance, setting a direction for reform and suggesting more public involvement in the evaluation.

"Essentially, a government is not there to manage but to provide service," Sang was quoted as saying.

"Its performance should be evaluated by whether the public - individuals, enterprises and society as a whole - is satisfied with that service."

The report said there are currently too many internal evaluations. Experts hold that these indices belong to internal management and are thus not conducive to public monitoring and evaluation.

The report said some of the pioneering practices of local governments could be borrowed.

For instance, the government of Nanjing in the eastern Jiangsu province randomly selects about 10,000 people every year and asks them to grade the city's 88 bureau-level organs. The one that ends up on the bottom of the list will have its director sacked or punished.