Spending money wisely

By admitting difficulty in fulfilling the goal of imposing a 4 percent spending cap for education by 2012, a vice-minister of finance sent a message on Monday that the government has done its best and it will make a greater push to reach the target. Fiscal revenue was only 20.4 percent of the GDP last year, said the vice-minister, the major reason why it has been difficult to meet the education spending goal.

Despite questions about the stated percentage of financial revenue, let's look at how much money officials at all levels nationwide spend in hosting banquet parties, in making overseas trips and maintaining cars they drive. Sources revealed that the total amount of money officials spend in these three sectors reaches 900 billion yuan a year. The expenditure in education in 2008 was 970 billion yuan.

Let's look at another figure: The number of groups, people and the amount of money for overseas tours at the public's expense dropped by 49, 45.5 and 37.6 percent respectively in 2009, compared with the average figures of the previous three years. The great efforts to cut unnecessary overseas tours at the public's expense have slashed the expenditure in this regard by 160 million yuan ($23 million).