Pedal to the metal on vehicle reform

While once enjoying a well-oiled fleet of government vehicles, county officials in Xinyu city can now be seen walking to work.

Among them is Zhou Minsheng, deputy secretary general of the Xinyu city Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) in east China's Jiangxi province.

As a veteran working 25 years in government, he enjoyed a chauffeur-driven commute for the last 10 years. Earlier this year, reforms led his branch to auction off 80 percent of their government vehicles.

"Now I have to walk to work," he said.

On Dec 4, 2012, CPC leaders introduced an eight-point rule to fight against corruption and bureaucracy. The campaign requires officials from various levels to minimize meetings, cut government spending and follow strict housing and vehicle standards.

From June 2013 to September 2014, the CPC initiated a "mass line" campaign, calling for officials to renew focus on the public. Part of the campaign included eliminating more than 114,000 government vehicles, 95.5 percent of the target number.

In March, reform on government vehicles was included in China's State Council government work report for the first time.

Zhou describes the reform as one "with the most decisive resolution."

In Xinyu, 130 vehicles, or one sixth of the previous amount, were kept. These vehicles are now equipped with a positioning system that allows travel routes to be tracked by the public.

The annual cost for a government car ranges from 60,000 yuan ($9,756) to 100,000 yuan, says Fu Shuizhu, deputy director of the city's government vehicle reform office. The annual upkeep, not including the actual price of the vehicle, comprises of drivers' compensation, gas and repairs.

With the reform cutting the size of Xinyu's fleet, they are expected to save 5 million yuan every year, Fu said.

While they no longer have access to government cars, officials in Xinyu City such as Zhou are granted a monthly transport subsidy ranging from 300 to 2,500 yuan depending on their titles. They are encouraged to take public transport or drive their private cars.

In July, China's central authorities set staggered target dates to complete the reforms. Branches of the central government must meet the guidelines by 2014, local government by the end of 2015, and state-owned institutions and enterprises in two to three years.

Cai Jiming, director of Tsinghua University's Political Economy Research Center and a think-tank member on government vehicle reform program, cautioned to avoid loss of state assets while dealing with excessive vehicles.

A price assessment agency should be entrusted to set a base auction price for vehicles and the auction result should be publicized in a timely manner, Cai said.

Cai made the warning after news that a government Mercedes Benz was sold at 24,000 yuan, less than one tenth of the market price in Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province, in August. The story sparked public doubt over the auction.

Ye Qing, a political advisor in Hubei Province and an expert on government vehicle reform, said the auctions can be used as a loophole through which officials themselves buy the cars at a very low price.

The government must also avoid corruption in the form of transport subsidy abuse.

In October, a state-owned company in Shenzhen City, Guangdong Province, was exposed after their transport subsidy policy offered general managers 6,800 yuan a month, twice the average salary for an ordinary government worker.

Lin Shuanglin, director of the public finance research center of Peking University, said government vehicle reform should accept social supervision, with subsidized government workers and amount information open to the public, and provide different levels of subsidy based on workers' posts and attendance.