County's waste of public money warrants serious investigation

Photo taken on Oct 20, 2011 shows a construction site in Rizhao city, East China's Shandong province. [Photo/IC]

AN UNFINISHED EXPO PARK IN SHANGCHENG COUNTY, a national-level poverty-stricken county in Central China's Henan province, was investigated by a provincial inspection team last month. The project reportedly involved an investment of at least 3.2 billion yuan ($487 million). Beijing News questions the absence of public supervision and says all those concerned should be held accountable for wasting public money:

As a major local project, the costly expo park in Shangcheng county led to a local official's promotion even though it ended up as just a collection of unused buildings.

And there are still questions left unanswered. First of all, whether the performance of the county's senior official was properly assessed before his promotion remains unclear. Given that the unfinished expo park is apparently a scam and so is the so-called investment, it is important to conduct a thorough investigation and hold any officials legally accountable for any wrongdoings. Also, how this giant unfinished project will be dealt with, should be made clear.

In fact, the scandal shows that many local officials are yet to include sufficient public participation, risk assessment, and legal reviews in their decision-making process, and that they often manage to walk away with impunity after they have wasted a considerable amount of money on useless, or worse corrupt, projects.

The wasting of public funds in Shangcheng county adds weight to belief that necessary supervision and restrictions on the abuse of decision-making power are still lacking in many places. In other words, not only the officials who made the wrong decisions but also the supervisory enforcers who failed to do their duty should be punished.