The year 2015 is expected to be an important year of reform for China. The reform of the use of official vehicles, which has been discussed for about 20 years without much progress being made, is one of the first things that the central and provincial governments have promised to work on this year.

In response to the central government's determination to cut excessive spending and mounting public discontent over the misuse of public money, a set of detailed guidelines were released by the State Council in July 2014, regulating the supply and use of official vehicles - cars that are purchased by government agencies for their employees to use for official business. The regulations say that the reforms must be implemented in central government organs before the end of 2014 and in local government bodies by the end of 2015.

Accelerating reform

Central government organs are said to have implemented the reforms as scheduled and are now working on what to do with their the surplus cars.

All ranks below that of deputy minister have been banned from using official vehicles - except for special reasons such as emergencies and law enforcement - while workers and officials at central government organs have started receiving transport subsidies ranging from 500 yuan to 1,300 yuan per month depending on their rank.

"This is the first time we have received a travel subsidy. And it is better than the past because I've been driving my own car for meetings and the subsidy helps," a civil servant told the Xinhua News Agency.

Local governments have also started their work on the reforms. Jiangsu and Hubei provinces held meetings in December 2014 on how they will implement their reform plans.

Jiangsu confirmed that during first phase of the reforms, approximately 16,000 government bodies will be affected.

"Provincial organs will be the first to be reformed in the first half of the year, while other Party organs of all ranks will be reformed in the next half," its official statement wrote.

An officer at a provincial agency, who demanded anonymity, said that they will no longer be able to claim expenses related to the purchase of official vehicles in 2015.

Another officer at a provincial agency said that money previously spent on official vehicles would now be used on travel subsidies and staff reallocation.

The Beijing Municipal Bureau of Landscape and Forestry also said they have returned all three cars that they had leased, the Beijing News reported.

No more cars misused

Due to the reforms, the procedure government employees and officials must go through to use official vehicles has become stricter as it has to prevent officials from misusing the cars for private matters, a frequent complaint lodged by citizens in the past.

Some government vehicles have been installed with GPS devices so that they could be tracked in real time and can be instantly reached by departments.

A worker at a government body in Beijing surnamed Chen said the application procedure has become more complex.

"In the past if we needed to use official cars, we only needed to tell our team leader. But now we have to submit an application form to the department head, the head of the office and also the head driver. And it is generally forbidden to use the cars to go to the airport, train stations and colleges unless necessary. In those cases, we must apply to the discipline inspection commission of the agency," he said.

Several civil servants in Beijing also said they had difficulties when applying to use government cars because the number of cars available has become limited.

A worker at a municipal organ said he has to make an appointment three days in advance if he wants to use an official vehicle.

Despite these difficulties, the reforms will benefit civil servants who have been driving their own cars to work or to attend job-related events as the new subsidies may help them cover their daily travel expenses.

Rough road ahead

However, Wang Wei, a professor with the China National School of Administration, argued that the size of the subsidies should be elastic and tailored to employees' needs as their duties vary, Xinhua reported.

A worker at the financial department of a government organ said his job requires him to travel to the bank often. "A subsidy of 500 yuan will just be enough to cover the expenses if I travel by taxi. If I drive, it will not cover the cost of the fuel and parking fees," he explained.

Ye Qing, a vehicle reform advocate and deputy director of the Hubei Provincial Bureau of Statistics, suggested that there should be a 10 percent leeway on the amount of the subsidy offered so it could ensure fairness for those whose needs are lesser or greater, according to the Beijing News.

Wang Yukai, a public administration professor with the China National School of Administration, also said local governments should be granted the freedom to set the size of the subsidies offered so they could guarantee workers' efficiency, according to Xinhua.

Even though one of the aims of the reforms is to lower government expenditure, officers at government organs said it is unlikely that a financial effect will be seen immediately. An officer explained that agencies need funding to manage their surplus cars, staff reallocation and redundancies.

"2015 will be a difficult year because government organs have to pay compensation to those workers whose contracts will be terminated," he said.

Also, since the central government launched pilot programs in some cities earlier in which the details of the new policies are different from those stated in the official reform guidelines, it will be a difficult task for some organs to change the subsidies they are offering to be in line with the reforms.

Wei Tian, an assistant professor at the Party School of the CPC Nanjing Committee, suggested that regulations should be made clearer or that those who violate the new guidelines should be punished.

Wang Yukai said that monitoring the progress of the reforms is vital. He said if that fails, the reforms would be ineffective and would become a new source of corruption.

"Only by publishing the numbers and figures of the differences before and after the reforms, can citizens understand the effect of the reforms," he said.