Vacant affordable housing shames local leaders

A property construction site in Nanjing, capital of Jiangsu province. [Dong Jinlin/For China Daily]

The National Audit Office recently disclosed that over 30,000 affordable houses in Guiyang, Southwest China's Guizhou province, have been uninhabited for two years because there is no water or electricity supply or road link. The local officials responsible for this waste of resources should be held accountable, says Beijing News:

Ironically, on March 24, the local State-run newspaper Guizhou Daily praised the provincial leadership for accelerating the construction of affordable housing. The local leaders claimed they were investing heavily in such housing and planned to construct 1.96 million apartments for low-income residents.

It seems the local officials take affordable housing merely as their own glorious achievement rather than necessary homes for those on low incomes. These apartments are not useable without utilities and a connecting road. It is a waste of money and labor, which should shame the local officials.

It is common sense that basic infrastructure and utilities are a must for residential communities. However, in reality many local officials are busy starting programs and writing them into their annual reports as achievements benefiting local residents without ever considering the practicalities.

To break this dilemma, the auditing departments need to strengthen their supervision, so that affordable housing programs are monitored and any problems are solved in a timely manner.

The higher authorities should also change their performance evaluation system for officials. For example, affordable housing construction should not be listed as an official's achievement until low-income residents truly benefit from such projects.

In this particular case, an investigation is needed to find out what has caused the problems and which officials should be held accountable for them. Only when officials pay for their misdeeds will such mishaps no longer be repeated.