Chinese ministry restricts official meals to canteens in austerity measure
A new document aiming to cut costs and streamline operations at China’s top authority for land and resource planning included a decree ordering officials to keep wining and dining to canteens.
A new document aiming to cut costs and streamline operations at China’s top authority for land and resource planning included a decree ordering officials to keep wining and dining to canteens.
The measures, which include using less paper and making shorter speeches, were expected to help the ministry shave 864,600 yuan (HK$1.08 million) in costs. This would equate to roughly 2.5 per cent of the ministry's estimated 33.4 million yuan budget for 2013, according to ministry figures cited in the report.
In a bid to impose stricter control on spending, travel arrangements - which include transport and accommodation - would all be arranged “centrally”. Meanwhile, official reception meals were to be confined to government canteens, the report said.
Other ministries and agencies have been introducing similar measures since President Xi Jinping vowed to clamp down on corruption by reducing ostentation and excess. A ban on lavish banqueting has been part of the Communist Party leadership's anti-corruption and austerity drive.
At the sidelines of the National People's Congress session in March, Li Jiang, a vice-chairman of Hunan's provincial people's congress' Standing Committee and an NPC deputy, said lavish banquets were an engrained tradition that would take some time to eradicate.
