A nearly 15 million yuan ($2.35 million) furniture bill for the Yunnan Provincial Communist Party School has raised more than a few online eyebrows.
Four Guangdong Province and three Yunnan companies had won the furniture and furnishing bids, the Yunnan Bidding and Procurement Bureau told the Yunnan Xinxi Bao newspaper Thursday.
The Guangdong firms won 11.39 million yuan in total furniture contracts, according to the Yunnan Government Procurement website on July 26. The Yunnan companies won a total 3.41 million yuan in contracts with their bedding and curtain bids on Friday and Monday.
Online criticism focused not simply on the cost, but also the use of the furniture and the source of funding.
“Where does the money come from?” wrote Web user Lao Zoujia. “From its own Party membership dues or from the fiscal treasury?”
The tendering and bidding process of this was in accordance with the law, a notary of Yunnan Bidding and Procurement Bureau told the Global Times Thursday.
“The information of this government procurement can be found on Yunnan Government Procurement website,” Hu Jiankun said.
The responsibility of the Yunnan Bidding and Procurement Bureau was to scrutinize the bidding, not the content of the purchase. As to the source of the funding or the purpose of the government procurement, Hu said he had no idea.
Global Times