Severe penalties needed

Why do some local governments spend beyond their means on huge construction projects? Are the leaders of these local governments so sanguine as to think they would not be blamed if these projects fail?

In the most recent such case, Qingshuihe County in North China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, which has yearly revenues of only 30 million yuan ($4.4 million), invested 6 billion yuan in building a new county seat 10 years ago.

Now, the project has been abandoned due to lack of funds.