Official Vehicle Reform in Full Swing

In compliance with the administration’s official vehicle reform, the central government has auctioned off over 3,800 government vehicles as the proceeds will be collected by the state treasury, according to a Global Times report.

The development affects approximately 50,000 staff, with 2,000 of them being reassigned to other functions. Affected civil servants were receiving monthly transportation subsidies of up to 1,300 yuan prior to the enforcement of the current policy.

"Their reform has met government expectations and reducing government expenditures are better than expected," said Lian Weiliang, deputy head of the National Development and Reform Commission.

Announcement on the implementation of the official vehicle reform was released in July 2014. In the official guideline that was circulated, the reform seeks to cut government spending on such subsidies as many officials have been using the government vehicles for personal reasons.

However, the guidelines also state that central government organs must comply by 2014 while the local government departments are required to complete it by the end of this year, and there has been concern that the latter will not be able to achieve such goal.

"The reform in local governments has encountered challenges as poor public transportation is constantly cited as one of the major reasons for the setback," said Lian. "Twenty local government organs have already submitted their reform plans and 16 of them have been approved so far."

Many experts believe that the full application of the reform is just the first step and that the creation of a supervising body would be a long-term solution that would effectively monitor the improper use of official government vehicles.

According to a suggestion by Hu Xingdou, a political science professor at the Beijing Institute of Technology, the use of special license plates for official vehicles would aid the public in reporting the private use of such vehicles.