This revelation came at a time when Beijing was confused about how to deal with the increasing level of debt owed by local authorities, which forced many of them to reduce construction budgets or reduce their public spending.
According to the report, the total wage budget for temporary workers is less than a quarter of what is paid to institutional civil servants, who have jobs considered as secure as the “iron rice bowl.”
However, temporary workers were found to outnumber full-time civil servants in the province by nearly twice.
The results showed that the prefecture’s 28,806 temporary workers were earning an average of 16,100 yuan (US$2,268) a year, while 15,580 government employees were earning an average of 128,300 yuan each – eight times that.
“The hiring process for most temporary employees lacks central control and appears arbitrary, leading to unregulated growth in quantity and a lack of quality assurance. Hiring practices involving nepotism pose a major challenge,” the magazine said.
The rapid expansion of the number of temporary workers has greatly impacted the province’s already strained fiscal budget.
As land sales, which represent the lion’s share of local government revenues, declined amid a decline in real estate, debt-laden municipalities were struggling with deteriorating finances.
For the economy to flourish, China must “clarify and strengthen” the role of the private sector
For the economy to flourish, China must “clarify and strengthen” the role of the private sector
While the national economy struggles to get back on its feet, many local governments are in desperate need of reliable sources of revenue, and end up relying on transfers and payments from higher-level authorities.
According to Ministry of Finance data, central government budget revenues reached 3.4 trillion yuan (US$479 billion) in the first 10 months of 2023 — a 5.8 percent decline from the previous year — while local government revenues fell 16.8 percent. 100 to 40 trillion yuan. Land sales fell by more than 20 percent year-on-year.
In the unnamed mountainous province, private funds were enough to cover only about 16 percent of temporary staff wages, and most of the rest would have to be reallocated from payment transfers from higher-level authorities to cover these payments, a local official said. He was quoted as saying.
The magazine said that the general general budget revenues are not enough to cover the wage expenditures of government workers, and the total wage expenditures of temporary employees exceed the total tax revenues of the entire province.
The magazine noted that popular governments in China usually follow three guiding principles, noting the urgent need to “guarantee employee wages, maintain normal operations, and secure the people’s well-being.”
Some counties in the reported region were found to have included temporary employee wage expenditures in their county-level financial payroll budgets, and significant expenditures were reported to be hidden within the operating expenditures of various government departments.
An unnamed local official was quoted as saying: “High-level governments should allocate sufficient funds based on functional responsibilities and identify sources of funding.”
“Otherwise all the pressures end up on finances at the provincial level, and difficulties accumulate at the grassroots level.”