Idling officials unacceptable

China's top legislator Zhang Dejiang delivers a work report at a a plenary meeting of theNational People's Congress' annual session in Beijing March 8, 2014.[Photo/Xinhua]

With the authorities maintaining the pressure to stamp out corruption, some officials have resorted to inaction or doing little in order to prevent themselves from being implicated in possible corruption cases or because they no longer receive kickbacks.

A clean and efficient government is the ultimate goal of China's ongoing administrative governance reforms and the campaign against corruption. So any behavior such as inertia or deliberate low efficiency is against the aim of the anti-graft campaign.

Out of fears over their possible implication, some officials have chosen inaction in the context of the anti-corruption campaign so as not to be put under an investigation. Some have chosen to do the same as passive resistance to the fact that their "gray incomes" have been reduced or eliminated because of the campaign.

To effectively control corruption, the government also needs to put mechanisms in place to spur employees to work more efficiently, as a cleaner government is usually a more efficient one.

The lower efficiency and obstruction, especially intentional inaction as a countermeasure to the country's anti-corruption fight, is because the fight is incomplete. Any official who holds a government post but chooses inaction not only wastes taxpayers' money, he or she will also obstruct the country's economic and social development. Such officials must be removed from the team of government workers.

While intensifying its anti-corruption campaign, China should also push forward its system building to promote higher efficiency. It should vigorously push for the building of a services-oriented government on the one hand, and put in place a set of effective mechanisms for the assessment of officials' performances and the elimination of ineligible ones on the other hand.

The above is an abridgement of a China Youth Daily article.