The Chinese central government punished 249 officials for indolence manifested in the failure to spend development budgets, sitting on land earmarked for development and delays to projects, while authorities simultaneously try to eliminate graft.
Many government officials have chosen to delay approving major projects to avoid drawing attention from officials and being accused of graft, as the central government is undergoing the country's biggest ever crackdown on corruption.
The central government has scolded 249 government officials for laziness and has repeatedly threatened to recall untouched budgets as a form of punishment for indolence.
Following an investigation that ran from the end of May until mid-June, the officials have been terminated, demoted or warned.
A food recycling project in north China's Shanxi Province served as a prominent example. According to the state-backed news agency Xinhua, construction on the project had yet to begin as of May this year even after the government had released funds for it in 2012.
"The aim of holding these people accountable is to promote work and manage the issue of laziness in government . . . and ensure this year's economic targets are on track," an unidentified official told Xinhua.
Investments that went unspent amounting to 296 billion yuan ($46.5 billion) have already been seized by the end of August and have mostly been invested in "urgent" development projects and to improve the livelihoods of citizens, Xinhua added.
Premier Li Keqiang is a known critic of lazy officials, especially when it came to pushing the policy directives of the central government.
The lack of government projects and investments may have played a factor in the slowing down of China's economy, which appears to be having its weakest performance in the last quarter century.