Editorials
Unnecessary tours
(China Daily)
Updated: 2010-02-12 07:53
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True, it is some achievement that the number of groups, people and the amount of money for overseas tours at the public's expense has dropped by 49, 45.5 and 37.6 percent respectively in 2009, compared with the average figures of the previous three years.
Yet, there is hardly any reason to be elated for such an accomplishment amid the financial difficulties during the crisis. If nearly 50 percent of the business trips abroad for government officials at various levels can be cut, and 160 million yuan ($23 million) were shelved as unnecessary, the biggest question should be how big the loopholes are in management.
Even after the drop, more than 3,300 business trips at the public's expense were made in 2009, involving more than 123,000 officials. It was not rare that some went on sightseeing tours abroad, considering them as an entitled privilege.
There were even cases where invitations were forged by partners abroad and trips were deliberately organized for purposes of sightseeing. And some collaborated with travel agencies to pay higher expenses for the trips - members of the tours then received kickbacks. To be exact, such trips became a way for some to embezzle public money.
It is good that the Ministry of Supervision, along with other central government departments, is organizing a crackdown on such trips. But it is never enough to consider it only as a matter of unhealthy work style. And it will not completely stop such practices if only disciplinary punishments were inflicted on those who have violated rules and wasted public money for such trips.
It has been emphasized that government officials should cultivate awareness about the nature of sightseeing trips at the public's expense and strictly abide by rules. But this is nonsense since none of them would be stupid enough not to know what they were doing.
What really matters is whether the system has left any room for some to maneuver for such trips. When it is easy for them to get free tours abroad for sightseeing, very few would be able to resist the temptation.
The agenda for a meeting on Tuesday is headed in the right direction in its closer examination of whether a business trip abroad is really necessary, whether the number of days is exactly what the business needs and whether the officials on the trips are the right ones.
Even for necessary business trips, management must be strict on budgets so that no money is wasted. It is not that most government officials are not trustworthy. It is because power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
Last, but not least, those who have violated the rules by going abroad for sightseeing at the public's expense should be punished as corrupt elements, rather than being given disciplinary punishment for an unhealthy work style.
Hopefully, we won't have to call the drop in business trips at the public's expense an accomplishment anymore if preemptive measures to make these unnecessary trips impossible start working.
(China Daily 02/12/2010 page8)
