Consequently, powerful institutions are the most popular with examinees. For
the five positions in the General Office of the Central Committee of the
Communist Party of China (CPC), more than 5,000 people registered. In contrast,
government recruiters in areas like meteorology, seismology and cartography have
failed to attract enough candidates. Some posts in grass-roots units or
departments in remote areas like western Gansu Province and Inner Mongolia
Autonomous Region received scant attention from applicants.
"Everyone has the right to pursue benefits, but it is sad to see so many
young talents acting cynically in a demanding job market, flocking to government
offices to escape the insecurities of life," said Liu Xirui,professor at the
National School of Administration.
"What is even more worrying is that these potential future decision makers
can scarcely be said to have a clear concept of public service or healthy
motives for civil servant positions," he said.
He noted that the responsibility of government officials is to serve the
people instead of being served by the people. The government should be organized
for the people and government officials should exercise power on behalf of the
people.
"A high quality civil servant must have a broad vision, a good understanding
of state policies, and a desire to serve the people, especially disadvantaged
groups," Prof. Liu said. "The greater the power, the greater the
responsibility."
Prof. Yu An from the School of Public Administration of Tsinghua University
believes that students' ideas about civil servants reflect their experience.
"Within the government, there is a gap between the power officials have and
the responsibilities they have to shoulder," he said, adding that there is a
lack of effective supervision of the power wielded by officials.
An annual report by the National Audit Office shows that government
departments lost 2.2 billion yuan in 2005 due to corruption, inefficient
taxation collection and bad land management. About 685 million yuan was lost to
embezzlers who fabricated expenditure or concealed and absconded with revenues.
Lax tax collection, a euphemism for turning a blind eye to taxes owed in return
for under-the-table favors, cost the government another 830 million yuan.
(For more biz stories, please visit Industry Updates)