Public money being wasted on follies

THE MINISTRY OF HOUSING and Urban-Rural Development has publicized two examples of local construction projects, in which local governments of poor regions invested heavily to construct grand structures that are of no use, instead of actual projects to improve people's lives. Beijing News comments:

The local governments of the two regions are rather "creative" in building their follies. Yuzhong county in Northwest China's Gansu province received 62 million yuan ($14.7 million) to improve the local environment, yet they invested 42 million yuan building scenic gates at the entrance and exit of the local highway.

In Hancheng, Northwest China's Shaanxi province, the local government invested heavily in constructing a scenic rockery garden that not only far exceeds their needs, but also is incompatible with the surrounding geography and scenery.

The Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development said the two local governments had wasted the money on projects to boost their own images rather than projects to benefit local residents.

Actually, the two governments' follies even hindered local economic development because they cost too much money. In the Yuzhong case, they spent 190 million yuan, or about 10 percent of the county's total financial income for the first half of 2018.

These two bad examples show how arrogant and short-sighted some leading local officials can be. With power in hand, they invest taxpayers' money to satisfy their own egos, not to satisfy the people's needs.

A closer look shows that both counties built their follies at the entrance of their highways, which confirms them being status symbols. It has become a trend among local officials to build such projects in places where it is easy for tourists to see them.

In order to curb this, it is necessary not only to strengthen supervision of local officials, but also revise local decision-making processes, so that leading local officials cannot make such decisions alone. The local legislature needs to do their jobs better so that the power of administrative officials is supervised.