The official vehicle reform office staff in Yizhou, a county-level city in Hechi, Guangxi, recently impounded 118 government vehicles, marking the beginning of anti-waste reforms.

A staff member from the office, Ms. Qin, said, "Our office will now hand out public travel allowances to government officials meeting the standards set this March. The subsidy standard will be open to the public and exposed under social supervision."

In view of Yizhou's area and population size, the official vehicle reform office ruled that the upper limit of government vehicle numbers for each village and town is set to three used for emergency and classified mail correspondence. For other uses, for every 60 government official there can be one government car.

Apart from vehicles for emergency, classified mail correspondence, law-enforcement and duty-implementation, general administrative law enforcement, special professional skills and for retired cadres, a total of 500 government vehicles will be impounded for safekeeping. No entity or individual has the right to use the car without a permit.

Other public institutions, state-owned enterprises and state-owned financial enterprises are expected to follow suit with a similar system in the near future.

Staff of Yizhou Official Vehicle Reform Office seals government vehicles in a local government department. [Photo by Yang Yecheng / Xinhua]

Edited by Owen Fishwick