People's money for private tours
We should find out who backed the overseas tour of government officials' wives, says an article in Guangzhou Daily. The following is an excerpt:
Soon after the overseas tours of officials from Xinyu, Jiangxi province and Wenzhou, Zhejiang province, were exposed online, another overseas tour from Zhangjiagang, Jiangsu province, has recently come to light thanks to the exposure in the cyberspace by netizens. This eight-member team is reportedly composed of the wives of the mayor and other key leaders in that city.
The public is wondering whose wives were on the list and who gave these ladies the money to travel abroad.
It is noted that the above three overseas tours were all arranged by the same travel agency with the same travel routes, instructions and destinations. For example, they all visited Boston, Washington D.C., New York City and Las Vegas.
It should not be a privilege and a bonus for government officials to travel abroad with government money, not to mention their wives and children. These tours reflect the spread of overseas travel by officials by abusing government power. It is high time to set up a tight supervision network to track down and catch those who dare to use the taxpayers' money to satisfy their personal needs.
(China Daily 12/10/2008 page8)
