Officials in charge of poverty relief work in Shaanxi province will be supervised by GPS, a move that aims to beef up the local government’s management of poverty alleviation.

According to a local announcement released by Yulin authorities on June 27, officials in charge of poverty relief work will be supervised by GPS, starting from June 30. The decision was made to better manage officials deployed in remote villages and will not violate their privacy.

The unprecedented move was initiated after four officials in charge of poverty alleviation in Yulin had been removed from their positions last week. The officials were sacked for their incompetence in eradicating poverty, including inaccurate poverty data collection.

“The local government wants us to live in the poor villages. Our priority is poverty alleviation, and I’ve been working the whole week, without adequate rest,” an official told the website Jiemian.com.

“Poverty alleviation is closely related to the well being of local residents. The officials’ dereliction of duties can have a harmful effect, so it’s necessary to strictly deal with them,” Wang Yukai, a professor at the Chinese Academy of Governance, told the Beijing Times.

China has stepped up its efforts in targeted poverty relief work in recent years, with the goal to eradicate rural poverty by 2020.