Chinanews, Beijing, March 27 - The Social Investigation Center of China Youth Daily and the News Center of Tencent.com jointly conducted a survey on views of China's administrative system, in which 98.3% of the 17,836 respondents complain about the high administrative costs.

 

Dining and traveling at public expenses and the large number of official vehicles are the focus of their complaint. The general public believes these luxuries constitute a better part of the fast-increasing administrative costs.

 

However, the low efficiency of government sectors should be blamed, too. Take 48 government offices in a Chinese city as an example. In 2004 alone, the average energy consumption of a public servant there was 400% of that of an ordinary citizen, while water and electricity consumption was 300% and 700% respectively.

 

The consumption of paper in Chinese government sectors has been growing at a rate of 10% annually, while the figure in most of the Western countries is only 1%.

 

According to the survey, 92.3% of the responders demand a "more transparent" administration open to public supervision. In fact, administrative costs in China have long been covered in a black box to which even the Commission for Discipline Inspection has no access, not to mention ordinary media and the general public.