Outsourcing of public power defies rule of law

The urban management bureau in Malong county in Southwest China's Yunnan province has reportedly "outsourced" its traffic enforcement to a private company, whose staff have clashed with local drivers many times. The company, whose legal representative was an urban management official's wife, was founded in 2013 to "reduce the increasing violations of parking rules" in the county. The local publicity department on Sunday said the bureau has no economic links with the company and the aforementioned official has been dismissed. Comments:

The possible illegal profit sharing between the local government and the private company, to which it now seems to have no administrative connections, indicates that officials may have engaged in rent-seeking or the outsourcing of enforcement power for personal gain.

Southern Metropolis Daily, June 15

On the one hand, the urban management bureau which outsourced its enforcement tasks to a private company has failed in its duties and, if the claims prove true, broken the law with illegal entrusting of powers to a private company. The private company for its part seems hardly familiar with relevant laws and regulations and appears to have resorted to improper, even illicit, enforcement acts. Such misconduct should be banned nationwide before urban management bureaus at all levels seek to outsource their enforcement duties.

Xinhua Daily Telegraph, June 15

It shows once again that some local governments still have a long way to go in regard to the ongoing reform of national governance, during which they are supposed to exercise their power based on the rule of law. It is indeed a shame that some departments are yet to acknowledge the principle that public power should not be exchanged for personal interests.

gmw.cn, June 15