AN OFFICIAL in Poyang county water conservancy bureau in East China's Jiangxi province refused to deal with a dangerous bridge in a remote mountain village with the excuse that he did not have a government car, and so was unable to get to the site. Legal Daily comments.

Local villagers can reportedly only cross a river using this unsafe bridge.

The reform to streamline the government car system means some officials no longer enjoy the perk. However, county officials receive a transport subsidy every month, which ranges from 500 yuan ($73) to 1,300 yuan depending on their duties.

The problematic civil servant in Poyang, who has only been criticized rather than disciplined by the local county authority for his attitude toward a serious public safety threat, presumably regards the monthly transport subsidy as a kind of personal income, rather than reimbursement for travel costs related to his duties, including the trip he should have made long before to examine the bridge before it reached the state it is in now.

The county government's criticism is not enough to address the problem, because the "idleness" of the official, which is not rare in many places, directly weakens the implementation of policies in the people's interests.

Officials not doing their jobs is in fact a form of corruption that must be dealt with severely according to relevant disciplinary rules.

Were it not for the media's exposure of the dangerous state of the bridge, a storm or strong wind might have brought it down while the Poyang water conservancy official still sat idly in his office.

The authority in Poyang should have acted long before the bridge became unsafe. It is only by good fortune that it is still standing.