A system implemented a year ago in Chongqing, aimed at keeping track of what government officials get up to outside working hours, has drawn criticism from web users over its costs.

A report in the Chongqing Economic Times said 82 officials in Youyang county had been publicly criticized as a result of the system, which uses GPS-enabled mobile phones to monitor their whereabouts, while web users question the necessity of the expense involved.

Mu Yong, director of the Youyang Inspection Office, said in an interview with the CET on Monday that a GPS-equipped mobile phone costs about 3,000 yuan (US$459), and the minimum monthly cost is 342 yuan (US$52), all of which is paid by the local government, while additional fees are paid by the phone owner himself. The cost to the government comes to about 1.7 million yuan (US$260,000) every year.

Xiao Lichao, a spokesman for the Youyang Commission for Discipline Inspection of the Chinese Communist Party (CPC), told the Chongqing Daily on Monday that the local government neither buys the GPS phones nor pays the phone bill for the officials, explaining that a local telecom company provides the phones to the officials for free.

A total of 239 members, including officials from 39 townships and 106 county-level departments and high-ranking managers in local State-owned enterprises in Youyang county, are covered by the plan, according to a document issued by the Youyang Inspection Office, the government organ that oversees issues relating to corruption among local officials.

Each official who is tracked is provided with a GPS-enabled 3G mobile phone to ascertain his location, according to the CET report.

Officials are required to keep the phone on 24 hours a day and report their location whenever they are contacted. If their report differs from the GPS reading, they receive disciplinary action including being asked to resign, said the newspaper.

The GPS cellphones also have video functions to help the watchdog detect whether the officials are lying when they report their locations, said the report. Mu said that the officials are tracked twice a month, when about half of them are called randomly.

However, insiders have pointed out that officials frequently evade being tracked by claiming that the phone is out of power due to the battery being dead or has been dropped in water, an insider told the CET.

A staff member of the Youyang Inspection Office surnamed Li told the Global Times on Monday that she thinks the policy is a good one and will not disturb her outside working hours.

Lin Zhe, a law professor at the Party School of the Central Committee of the CPC, told the Global Times that while strengthening the inspection of officials outside working hours is necessary, tailing them with a GPS-equipped mobile phone is the worst way of doing it.