Top officials are intent on banning luxurious facilities inside government office buildings, including lavish water fountains and hotel-style facilities, in a bid to stop wasting public money.

A circular from the State Council and the General Office of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China contains a detailed list of what should be banned from new government office buildings.

Mounting public complaints prompted the circular.

"Some (governments) even borrow money from banks or misappropriate money allotted for poverty and disaster alleviation to build their office buildings," the circular said.

"It is a severe wasteful activity as well as corruption in the form of power abuse."

And for the first time, it provides a cost guideline for governments at different levels to follow.

For example, it sets a cost limit of 4,000 yuan ($520) per sq m in the construction for ministerial level government office buildings.

And the cost for municipal level government is capped at 3,000 yuan per sq m and the upper limit for county-level government is 2,500 yuan per sq m.

Construction of multifunctional meeting or training centers affiliated with government departments or institutions will be banned. They include the addition of restaurants and hotel-style accommodation in government buildings.

Decorations like indoor gardens, multistorey atria and dance stages are forbidden.

It said office buildings should conserve energy with environment-friendly and energy-efficient elevators, heating and air-conditioning facilities.

"Some local government office buildings set bad examples with their huge energy consumption," Qiu Baoxing, deputy construction minister said. Last month, he slammed some local governments that allowed fancy and luxurious buildings.

Bank loans, misappropriation and donations under any guise are prohibited for the construction of government buildings.

Lu Dadao, an academician at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, welcomed the ideas.

"It shows the central government is beginning to realize the problem and is taking action to resolve it," he said.

Lu has been actively calling on the government to curb the spree of luxurious office buildings by local governments.

"Government buildings should serve as models for conservative buildings," he said.

Source: China Daily