Recently, a website in Dongguan displayed picture of a banquet hosted by a State-owned bank, along with captions. The meal featured Alaska crab, abalone, Moutai, and fine wines.
The images of the meal, which cost over 10,000 yuan ($1,565), attracted more than 7,000 viewers within a day, most of which were astonished by the luxury meal while a few stated cynically that they have become accustomed to such practices.
State-owned enterprises (SOEs) spending large amount of money on hospitality is nothing new.
It was once reported that a general manager of a State-owned company of Shenyang spent over 9,000 yuan in a bathhouse in one month, and the Guangdong branch of the Sinopec Group, was exposed as spending as much as 1.68 million yuan on alcohol this April.
But who can supervise the corruption SOEs?
The labor union, which is supposed to shoulder this duty, is now purely decorative. Even the president of the union, if he doesn't "cooperate" with important leaders at the enterprises, risks being dismissed.
So some leaders of SOEs abused power rampantly to seek their own interests and indulge their own greed and gluttony.
And the current financial system in SOEs makes this easy for them. All they need to do is sign an expense sheet to spend money that belongs to the nation and the people at their pleasure.
The fact that the leaders are beyond the reach of the system is in essence caused by a lack of supervision and restriction on power.
We should reflect on the problem and strive to make improvements.
Zhujiang Evening News