A report in the People's Daily says that more than 800 million yuan (US$96.7 million) is spent on maintaining the 248,000 cars used by government departments in northwest China's Gansu Province every year. With the cost of depreciation, governments at all levels have to pay 1.347 billion yuan (US$162.88 million) a year, which accounted for 15.5 percent of local revenues in 2003.

This is a huge burden on government revenue.

Nationwide, according to the Beijing-based Procuratorate Daily, there were more than 3.5 million government cars in service at the end of the 1990s. Car maintenance and payment of drivers added up to 72 billion yuan (US$8.7 billion) between 1991 and 1995, and soared to about 300 billion yuan (US$36 billion) a year in the last decade.

The operational costs of a government car are eight to 10 times that of other cars such as taxis. Worse, many officials abuse their privilege and use the cars for their own personal ends, which fires increasing public complaints and damages the government's image.

All this suggests there is a necessity and urgency to reform the current government car use practice.

Many parts of the country have been launching pilot reforms on car use in government departments in an effort to fight corruption and cut government expenditure.

A popular measure in these trial reforms is to sell off most of the cars owned by government departments and pay monthly transport subsidies to officials.

The new government car use regulation of Nanjing in east China's Jiangsu Province rules that officials at or under vice-mayor level are not allowed to keep their cars. Officials have to pay according to the mileage if it is for private use.

These terms have been welcomed by the public, despite some remaining reservations about whether it can be fully implemented.

The level of subsidy is usually connected with officials' titles. In the districts of Haidian, Fangshan and Pinggu in Beijing that implemented the reform last December, officials were entitled to car subsidies of six different ranks, ranging from 200 to 1,800 yuan (US$24-US$218) per month. In some developed coastal cities, the monthly subsidy for officials at the division head level was as much as 3,000 yuan (US$363).

Such a method, however, is a bit like turning the formerly free car use privilege into cash for officials. The high subsidies associated with official ranks will continue to keep the operational cost of the government high.

The adjustment of car use in government institutions is vital for overall government reform in China.

An enormous amount of money is needed to keep the engine of government running every year. To make the expenditure transparent and efficient, detailed rules and supervision to regulate administrative spending are needed.

Hopefully, pilot reforms in some parts of the country will work out solutions for better car use in government institutions. This can only help build a cost-effective government.

(China Daily January 27, 2005)