255 punished in China's campaign to curb gov't extravagance

A total of 255 people have been punished for misusing motor vehicles during government or Party business since April 2011, official statistics show on Thursday. They were implicated in the 3,396 cases reported by the public or media over the inappropriate use of government cars, since the country started a nationwide crackdown on such practices in 2011. The figures were released in a statement by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the Communist Party of China and the Ministry of Supervision. Authorities said 199,600 motor vehicles in government or Party departments had been used improperly, and slashed the number of vehicles in central government departments by 35 percent. Authorities also removed the registrations of 47,600 motor vehicles from government or Party departments. Extravagances by officials in China, especially expenditure on overseas trips, vehicles and official receptions, have garnered public attention in recent years, as many people believe government departments spend too much on those items. Since 2011, central government departments, public institutions and some local governments have published their expenditure for public consumption on their websites to invite public supervision. From April 2008 to March 2011, China launched a campaign to cut the number of government officials travelling overseas on public funds. The campaign, which has saved about 1.4 billion yuan (224 million U.S. dollars) of public funds in three years, saw the number of such trips and expenditure in 2010 decrease by 43.9 percent and 32.6 percent,respectively, in comparison with the yearly average of the 2006-2008 period.