Society

County govt under fire for costly building

By Zhang Yue (China Daily)
Updated: 2011-03-31 08:16

HEFEI - The government of a poverty-stricken county in East China's Anhui province has been asked to submit a self-criticism report for erecting a huge and extravagant office building, but no official has been held responsible for the scandal.

The city government of Anqing in Anhui province announced on Monday that the office building, in the city's Wangjiang county, was overdecorated and put up without all the approvals needed from higher authorities.

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The county government was encouraged to bring a halt to the unnecessary decorations and adopt stricter approval procedures for such decorations, but no single person or group was held responsible for the outrage.

Photographs of the county's new office building have been circulated online since last September, prompting netizens to claim the "luxurious" building is eight times larger than the White House. The images drew criticism from the public and notice from the media, especially since the county was reported to have only 210,000 yuan ($32,000) in its coffers in 2009 and to bring in less revenue than other governments in the province.

Under huge pressure from the public and the media, the government of Anqing city launched an investigation into the case in late 2010.

The results of the inquiry were not disclosed until recently, when many netizens began taking part in an online muckraking campaign aimed at curtailing the construction of grandiose government buildings across the country.

According to the report, the government building in Wangjiang takes up about 40,878 square meters of space.

Of that, government offices will occupy 11,056 square meters, an amount that does not exceed the limit set on such projects, according to the report.

The remaining parts of the building are designed to give the public places to go to get help with various social service, for youth recreation and for other purposes, it added.

But the report contended that some of the building's decorations contradict the central government's regulations controlling the design of government buildings.

Wang Bing, an official with the Party's disciplinary authority of Anqing, said the investigation ended in early October and all inappropriate undertakings were stopped soon afterward.

"The controversy over the issue has dimmed since then, so we feel it's not necessary to make the investigation report public", said Gan Zhen, an official of the Party's publicity department for the city.

The department decided to announce the investigation results after many media outlets had asked to be informed of the latest news in the case, Gan said.

"I am quite disappointed about the results, since they came out too late," a netizen, who goes by the name of Binyu and was one of the first muckrakers to express opinions about the case, told China Daily.

"And I think the government, after such a long time, should make it clear who is responsible."