Officials' performance in public service should be included when making an appraisal of their work, says a commentary in the Beijing News. An excerpt follows:

At a recent international forum on public service, experts suggested that reform is urgently needed to include public service performance in measuring local government work.

The traditional mechanism measuring the work of officials and local governments is centered on the gross domestic product (GDP). But when local governments focus on economic growth, they neglect public services.

In a market economy, the functions of the government are to guide economic development, supervise the market, manage society and serve the public. But such a position of the government can be realized only through a proper arrangement.

One of the arrangements needed is to include public service performance in the mechanism measuring the working accomplishments of officials.

Officials' performance in public services could be divided into two categories: providing basic social security and ensuring fair welfare coverage.

Administrators should try to supply pension plans, medical care and compulsory education to the public. Meanwhile, the provision of welfare should be fair in different groups as well as in different regions.

The latter part of the problem is more urgent. The difference in social welfare is remarkable between rural and urban populations, between developed and less-developed regions and among social groups.

To bridge the gap, the central government and the provincial governments should offer special subsidies to the central and western parts of China, where the economy is underdeveloped, to ensure adequate social welfare for local populations.

Another solution would be for citizens to get access to social welfare in the places they currently live instead of where they register as permanent residents. That will facilitate the government in offering services as well as the public enjoying them.

(China Daily October 31, 2006)