The accelerated reconstruction program in Sichuan is well on track and quality has not been compromised, a senior government planner said on Tuesday, following fears expressed by some that haste could lead to shoddy construction.

"We are totally capable of finishing the three-year task of recovery and reconstruction in two years," Fei Zhirong, an official with the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), said during an online interview with www.gov.cn.

The central government said at the end of last year that it aims to finish most of the reconstruction work in two years, instead of the originally planned three years, hoping it would cushion the impact of the global financial crisis on the country.

But hasty construction and a lack of transparency in some bidding projects may affect quality, local officials, developers and residents have warned.

"Since the central government decided (to complete reconstruction in two years), provincial and local governments have raced against time. But speed is not always good," Zhu Ge, an official in Sichuan's Deyang city, told China Daily.

"Some (officials) will ignore construction quality when rushing to complete the job," he said.

Chen Yong, manager of a road construction company in Deyang, told China Daily that the central government has set a good example in pairing aid-giving provinces or municipalities with quake zones.

"But the problem is that the process of bidding for projects is not fair and transparent in some cases," said Chen, adding that some provinces have allowed only companies under their own jurisdiction to bid for the projects.

Since those companies are not allowed to directly implement the reconstruction projects in Sichuan, "they have to sub-contract again and again".

Chen said the road project he was working on was obtained after a series of sub-contracts, meaning that a big chunk of the budget had been reduced even before construction started.

"This is quite common in Deyang. Our profit is negligible," said Chen, who did not want to disclose his company's name.

Such projects, he said, "may lead to jerry-built buildings and roads".

However, Tang Kai, director of the urban planning department of the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, Tuesday said ensuring the quality of reconstruction projects is "one of the most basic principles" in the ministry's work.

At the same time, he acknowledged that the ministry is "faced with a series of adverse factors", and therefore must further improve construction standards and supervision.

For Chen, a key "adverse factor" is that reconstruction has made Sichuan so large a construction site that it is practically impossible for the central or provincial governments to monitor all the projects.

"Wrongdoings in bidding projects have already led to corruption," he said.

However, the NDRC's Fei said funds, on the whole, have been "well-managed".

An extensive audit of projects has found "no major problem" and any issue that may lead to misuse will be "seriously dealt with", he said.

But an office chief of a vocational school in Mianyang's Fucheng district, surnamed Yang, complained to China Daily that a large chunk of the promised 54 million yuan for rebuilding has not been allocated.

"We have received only 7 million yuan from the central government, which is responsible for providing one-third of the money," he said. "The rest should have come from the city but we haven't seen any yet."

Two buildings need to be rebuilt and the school has been looking for donations and bank loans to make up for the shortfall, he said.

The Sichuan government announced in March that it is facing a funding shortfall of more than 1.3 trillion yuan (US$199 billion) in the 1.7 trillion yuan needed to speed up recovery efforts.

That means more than three-quarters of the total spending would have to come from non-governmental sources, said provincial governor Jiang Jufeng.

(China Daily May 13, 2009)