Public resources should not be used to seek profits, says a
signed article in Xiaoxiang Morning Post. An excerpt
follows:
The State Council issued a document last Thursday about
off-campus venues for children. It requires that cultural or
science centers be operated as public welfare undertakings, and the
benefit of children must be the priority. The document says that
such venues should not conduct commercial activities to seek
profits.
Venues like children's centers receive government investment to
be run as public welfare undertakings. But some put their focus on
commercial activities. It is timely for the central government to
ban their commercial activities.
Under market economy conditions, some sectors forget their
public welfare nature and throw themselves into the tide of
profit-seeking. Venues for minors like children's centers are
contracted or rented out to businesses. The space for teenagers'
off-campus activities shrinks while some irrelevant or even
unhealthy activities emerge in such venues.
The situation where public sector venues profit from public
resources is not uncommon. For example, students' scores in the
national college entrance examination are public resources, but
some education departments co-operate with telecommunication
companies to conduct charged information services.
From the angle of public administration, it is not cost-free for
public departments, including public welfare undertakings, to
provide public services. But taxpayers have paid for these services
and citizens should not be charged for them. To use public
resources for commercial activities amounts to privatization of
public services and shows no regard to taxpayers' rights.
It seems no big deal for children's centers to conduct
commercial activities, but what lies behind this is a serious
problem. Related departments may have made some profit, but their
public credibility is harmed. Such behavior should be banned.
At the same time, it is important to guarantee the funding for
public welfare undertakings. That is the only way to put an end to
commercial activities and to realize their nature as public
welfare.
(China Daily April 11, 2006)
