Over 3,800 units auctioned off, proceeds turned over to State treasury
The central government has complied with the official vehicle reform by reducing by nearly two-thirds the number of its vehicles, a State Council Information Office official said Wednesday.
Over 3,800 government vehicles have been auctioned off, and the proceeds have been turned over to the State treasury, said Lian Weiliang, deputy head of the National Development and Reform Commission.
The reform affected over 50,000 staff and 2,000 of them have been reassigned, he said.
The affected central government department civil servants have been receiving up to 1,300 yuan ($204) in monthly transportation subsidy since December 2014, the China National Radio reported.
"Their reform has met government expectations, and reducing government expenditures are better than expected," Lian said.
The auctioned vehicles also included luxury brands, such as BMW and Mercedes, which attracted the most number of bidders. At an auction held in March, for example, a Toyota Land Cruiser was auctioned off for 850,000 yuan.
The State Council released guidelines on the official vehicle reform along with a timetable in July 2014, aimed at cutting spending, as many officials have been using the vehicles for personal reasons, which has bloated public expenses.
According to the guidelines, central government organs have to complete the reform by 2014, and local governments by the end of this year.
However, there were concerns that the local government may miss the deadline, as the majority of them have not announced their local reform plan as of early September, media reported.
"The reform in local governments has encountered difficulties, poor public transportation in some regions cited as a major reason," Lian said, adding that the reform encouraged civil servants to take public transportation after reducing the supply of government vehicles.
"But after experts developed feasible solutions, all the provinces and municipalities have set out their reform plans," Lian said. He said that he is confident that the local governments would complete the reform before the deadline.
"Twenty local governments have submitted their reform plan to the central government, and 16 of them have, so far, been approved," he said.
However, experts said that fulfilling the reform was just the first step, and that it's important to create a supervision mechanism to prevent government vehicles from again being used for private purposes.
"The government should use different license plates for official vehicles, so the public can report those who use the vehicles for private purposes," said Hu Xingdou, a political science professor at the Beijing Institute of Technology.
