Channels should be made available to people to assess civil servants' performance. And their opinion should be an important criterion to decide civil servants' earnings, says an article in People's Daily. Excerpts:

The central government has decided to raise the pay of grassroots civil servants.

Some civil servants working in community-level offices in Beijing have complained that their monthly income of about 5,000 yuan ($830) is not enough to make ends meet. But they should not compare their income with that of professional talents working in higher-income sectors such as information technology and finance. Even if some civil servants' salary is lower than some nannies' and migrant workers', their actual earnings are much higher than those in other sectors because of the welfare and bonuses such as housing, pension, medical care and education allowance they receive.

Some civil servants have complained that their pay and pension have not increased for eight years. But despite that, their pension is higher than that of ordinary retired workers whose pensions have increased every year for more than a decade.

Civil servants' salaries should be based on the inflation rate. More importantly, their performances should be assessed by the people they serve. Besides, civil servants' bonus and welfare, and property holdings should be open to the scrutiny of supervisory departments and the people.

That some grassroots civil servants abuse their powers to make illegal money has exposed the institutional loopholes in government supervision. Therefore, these loopholes should be plugged before increasing civil servants' pay.