Public service calls for better supervision
- Source: Global Times
- [21:32 June 11 2009]
- Comments
A downpour left residents of Nanzhang county in Hubei Province no clean tap water to drink for 10 days, a result of the local government withdrawing from public service and private business putting profit ahead of service.
Public anger is now calming down after local water company offered an apology and compensation with clean water flowing out of new equipment. But the debate persists as to what role government should play after deregulation of public services.
In recent years, market-oriented reform has taken place in the public service sector in many places. The hope is that this will improve efficiency and reduce costs by encouraging competition. Replacing the government’s operation of services with the market mechanism is a growing trend, and in many ways it has achieved some success. But the problems exposed in Nanzhang remind us that government can’t leave public services completely unattended.
Whether it is the government or a private company providing the public service, the goal should be the same: quality service.
In the Nanzhang case, Pufeng Group, specializing in producing cement, purchased the county’s tap water company for 11.58 million yuan ($1.7 million). Laziness was behind the local government’s hasty decision to pick up a company with no previous experience in the water utility business.
Deregulation doesn’t mean government can retreat from its responsibility of supervision. Unsanitary tap water in Nanzhang illustrates the government’s dereliction of duty in failing to foresee the consequence it might encounter in the rainy season.
As it reforms the public service sector, the government can’t conveniently get rid of the necessary duty and responsibility; otherwise, reform will lead only to inconvenience for ordinary people.
Beijing Times