公车改革：省部级以下不配专车

全国政协委员、中央国家机关工委原副书记李宏透露，近期中共中央办公厅和国务院办公厅下发“党政机关公务用车配备使用管理办法”，分别针对省部级和省部级以下单位做出规定，省部级官员提升职务后，也不能换车，“车随人走”，同时，省部级以下单位车辆不固定到人。

李宏透露，公车配备使用管理办法规定，省部级官员配车，使用年限从5年一换变为8年一换，8年后车若还能用，将继续使用。省部级官员配车排量要求未降低，但费用要求降低。同时，省部级官员提升职务后，也不能换车，不管升职还是平级调动，车都要跟人走。同时，对于省部级以下单位，新办法除规定排量和价格外，还要求按人员编制定车辆的多少，但车辆不能固定到人。据悉，厅局级以下干部，按以前的规定也是不配专车，而现在很多县乡一级干部也违规配备了专车。

The central government will require an additional three years of use for official vehicles for ministers and governors to reduce the costs of purchasing new cars, media have reported.

The new rule has been applied among all Party and government departments nationwide, the Beijing News reported on Tuesday, quoting Li Hong, former deputy secretary of the Work Committee of the Central Government Departments Under the Communist Party of China Central Committee.

The new rule has not yet been made public, Li said.

Li, a member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference national committee, made the comment on the two sessions' sidelines.

Under the old rules, the cars used by minister-level officials could be replaced as often as every five years, Li said.

These officials will also retain the same cars when they assume new posts, he added.

The new rule also reiterated that officials ranking below ministerial- or governor-levels should not be allocated cars. The cars possessed by their departments should be used on demand.

"It violates the rules" for lower-ranking - even county-level - officials to be allocated cars, Li said.

Purchases of vehicles for official use have been heavily scrutinized, as they account for a large expenditure of public funds every year.

A survey on the Web news portal www.ifeng.com found 64 percent of respondents believed the new rule will be difficult to implement because it is related to officials' interests.

Local government departments had halted approvals for requests for such vehicles and had started to work on new quotas under the new rules, Li said.

"The future reform of official vehicle use will introduce market mechanisms and monetization," Li said.

Premier Wen Jiabao said in the annual government work report on Saturday that expenditures on such vehicles will not increase in 2011 compared with a year ago.

Beijing's standing deputy mayor Ji Lin last week said the municipal government will release the number of vehicles for official use in the capital as early as at the end of this month.

Earlier this month, the Ministry of Finance had published a rule regulating the budgets for such vehicles.