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A mistake corrected

(China Daily)
Updated: 2008-07-18 07:31

The decision Chengdu municipal government announced on Tuesday to auction its office buildings for post-quake reconstruction deserves a thumbs up.

Rumors on the Internet had it that this provincial capital government in Sichuan, which had been devastated by the most serious earthquake in decades on May 12, moved into its new office buildings three days after the calamity took place.

Along with the hullabaloo were accusations that the buildings occupying an area of 17.01 hectares, with a construction area of 370,000 square meters, were too luxurious for a provincial capital city in an underdeveloped province. Construction is said to have cost 1.2 billion yuan ($173 million).

Amid the public uproar against the construction of luxurious office buildings by some local governments and repeated calls from the central government to stop squandering taxpayers' money on unnecessarily costly offices, it is hard for the Chengdu government to find enough excuse to justify the extravagance of these structures.

The sufferings of earthquake victims and the rushing of aid and volunteers to quake-affected areas from all over the country and the world have added to the inappropriateness of moving into such a group of buildings by a government, which should be at the forefront of earthquake relief and post-quake reconstruction.

From all these perspectives, the Chengdu government has done the right thing. This is also the only choice for it to make amends for at least the not quite popular decision to construct such a group of over-luxurious buildings.

The promise it has made to spend all the money from selling the buildings on quake relief and reconstruction will undoubtedly help promote its image among not only local residents but also people across the country.

But the decision to sell the buildings is one thing, and the motivation to construct them is another. The Chengdu government should have a thorough retrospection into what these expensive structures have meant to its public image, even without the earthquake.

Under any circumstances, the squandering of taxpayers' money on too luxurious office buildings can never be a commendable thing to do for any government, which is supposed to put the interest of its citizens on top of their agenda.

What the Chengdu government has done should be a reminder to its counterparts in other localities to look at how they had performed their duties of serving the people.

(China Daily 07/18/2008 page8)