Local officials that are reluctant to delegate their powers due to a desire to preserve their own economic interests may pose the biggest challenge to China's administrative reforms, according to a report issued on Saturday.
The report, called "China administrative reform report 2014-2015," was released by the China Society of Administrative Reform and the Social Sciences Academic Press (China) on Saturday.
The researchers interviewed 465 members of staff at government departments and State-owned companies, grass-roots workers and ordinary citizens, including 31 bureau-level officials and 251 division-level officials. They found that over 60 percent of the respondents believed that "different departments fighting with each other over interests, with some using their power as a profit-making tool" is the biggest challenge to administrative reform.
When asked about whether officials are obstructive when their departments are ordered by the central government to delegate powers, more than 40 percent of the polled individuals agreed, saying that officials would likely consider their own interests and follow the most profitable course of action.
"The results of the report are thought-provoking," Wang Yukai, deputy editor of the report said, the Beijing Times reported. He explained that local governments which only give up their power when it advances their own interests are likely to affect the implementation of central government policies.
Streamlining local administration has been one of China's priorities over the last two years.
The reforms aim to improve government efficiency and have been motivated by the common complaint that dealing with local bureaucracies is too time-consuming.
In March, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said China will do more to streamline administration and delegate more powers to lower-level governments.
The central government has gotten rid of bureaucratic reviews or delegated the power of review to lower-level governments for more than 500 administrative procedures since March 2013.
The new policies have been welcomed by Liu Ying, an accountant for a private firm in Shenyang a city in Northeast China's Liaoning Province.
"I used to have to go to several offices on different floors of the same building for official stamps for invoices or tax declarations," she said. "The procedures were simplified last year and I can now have all the business done in one place."
