Noses to the grindstone

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Local residents walk in front of government office buildings in Changxing county, Zhejiang Province. Photo: CFP Shen Hua, a chemical plant executive, filed an application for a new project six months ago. He is still waiting for local government's approval.Compared with the government's eagerness four years ago, when it invited him to open the Yufang Chemical Plant in Junan county, East China's Shandong Province, the bureaucracy this time around has been a disappointment. Shen's company employs more than 60 workers and churns out 2,000 tons of fusel oil annually.The new project could bring dozens of jobs, "but without approval, I don't know when the project can get started," Shen said.Wang Zhongwu, a professor of sociology at Shandong University, said reluctance to approve the program is partly due to changes in how bureaucrats are evaluation. In December, the Organization Department of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee shifted the prime assessment criteria away from GDP toward an emphasis on environmental protection, excess capacity and production safety instead.Local governments are also trying to keep chemical plant programs at arms' length because of the ease with which they draw public and media attention, according to Wang.In March, more than 1,000 people in Maoming, in South China's Guangdong Province, protested in front of a government building for two days against a paraxylene plant.However, concern for the environment is not the sole reason for changing attitudes among local officials. Shen's case has anti-graft implications, Wang added. Bureaucratic undercapacity is emerging in some places in the face of a continued anti-graft campaign which began after the 18th CPC National Congress in late 2012. The campaign has weeded out tens of thousands of corrupt officials both high and low.According to the CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI), in the first five months of the year, 62,953 officials were sanctioned, up 34.7 percent over the same period last year.Wang said the campaign has shocked many bureaucrats into inaction, with many unwilling to do any work so as to avoid any involvement in corruption. They are particularly wary of big-ticket projects and anything related to the environment.Following these signs of unproductive conduct, concrete measures have been put into place to keep officials at all levels from backsliding, and to make sure that central government policy is carried out at the local level.The State Council, China's cabinet, conducted a nationwide inspection of its policies from June 25 to July 5, covering 27 central government divisions and 16 provincial regions.Central government inspection teams examined how policies were being implemented by local governments, identified challenges and offered suggestions. It was the first such wide-scale inspection by the current administration.The inspection reports indicated that the implementation process remains slow, and that some local officials are avoiding implementation in an attempt to avoid taking responsibility for any wrongdoings, The Beijing News reported on July 18. Moreover, the inspection teams also found out that some local governments are selective in their implementation, adopting some policies and bypassing those they believe might damage their interests. For instance, the central government urged local authorities to streamline administration and delegate power to lower levels. But inspection teams found that some local governments only delegate "less important powers" to lower levels while hanging on to authority over areas such as management of monopoly industries. Though not as harmful as corruption, bureaucratic backsliding could undermine reform plans, said Qi Ruqing, a professor at the Party School of the CPC Shandong Provincial Committee.On June 6, President Xi Jinping told the third meeting of the central leading group that reform should be "better targeted and more effective," beginning with concrete issues and aimed at prominent problems."The success of reform will be decided by whether our goal is reached and the success of our blueprint will be its implementation," said Xi.Xi stressed that every single issue should have specific personnel with clear responsibility for management, supervision, and implementation.In early June, the State Council said that it plans to set up an independent institute to oversee local authorities' policy implementation performance, the Xinhua News Agency reported. Besides efforts from central government, local governments also are taking on the problem of backsliding.One local government in Central China's Henan Province initiated a campaign in May to investigate officials who were not doing their jobs."Six officials were dismissed and a total of 136 have been punished to date," according to report carried by the People's Daily on July 10.In Qufu, Shandong Province, the local government set up an office, a hotline and an express vehicle to improve bureaucratic efficiency.The mechanism, which holds the first officials who deal with requests from people or companies accountable, won applause from locals, with approval rates hitting 98.5 percent, according to a local government report.Local governments have also invited people to supervise the efficiency of officials and government organs. 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