Guangdong moves to control spending

Guangdong province announced progress in five recent campaigns to eliminate improper spending and waste while serving residents better, provincial officials said at a news conference on Friday.

Zhong Wei, general accountant of the provincial bureau of finances, said the bureau found 22 "little coffers", or illicit accounts, that involved 20.27 million yuan ($3.35 million), and took action to correct five of them. The remaining 17 cases are still being examined in detail.

He added that 261 government projects used funds illegally. The projects involved almost 160 million yuan. The bureau has recovered 11.83 million yuan and punished two officers, he said.

The five campaigns were carried out from September to December.

Last fall, Hu Chunhua, the Party chief of Guangdong, mapped out the initiatives, which aimed at eliminating the illegal construction of office buildings; overseas travel using public funds; excessive festival celebrations, forums, fairs and conferences; illegal use of special funds; membership cards for officials given by commercial organizations such as shopping malls; and the little coffers.

In December, the Guangdong government undertook an additional 10 campaigns aimed at improving services to the public and reducing paperwork and meetings.

Liu Yi, deputy head of the organization department of the Guangdong provincial Party committee, said at the news conference that nine of the 10 new campaigns have been launched; one concerning image projects is in a preliminary review stage.

In June, President Xi Jinping, urged members of the Communist Party of China Central Committee to adopt a "mass line" philosophy — doing everything for the masses, relying on them in every task and carrying out the principle of "from the masses, to the masses" — in a move to improve ties with the public.

Xi said that officials of the government and Party members should eliminate undesirable work styles such as formalism, bureaucratism, hedonism and extravagance.