Part of an ebony tree, which had been buried for about 4,000 years, is unearthed on Wednesday, April 17, 2014, in Wuning, a county in Jiangxi province. Four sections were found, with the longest measuring about 10 meters. They will be preserved and exhibited at Wuning Museum. [Photo by Hu Guolin/For China Daily]

TWO RARE EBONY ARTIFACTS, which were found on a riverbank in Suining in Southwest China's Sichuan province about half a month ago, remain unattended to and lie unprotected in the open because none of the relevant local government departments are willing to take responsibility for them. Rednet.cn urges the government departments to coordinate closely to address the issue instead of shirking their responsibilities:

The relevant government departments are supposed to coordinate and cooperate to handle such a public issue, and together work out an unambiguous plan in which at least one of them takes care of the issue. Instead, they have simply kicked the can from one to another.

It is notable that some local departments are going to extremes to shirk their responsibilities against the backdrop of stricter supervision over the use of public power in the country.

Such "laziness", in essence, has a lot to do with some officials selectively ignoring their duty to serve the public.

That three local departments refused to deal with the newly discovered artifacts, to some point, indicates that they are yet to heed the lessons from the tightening supervision on the use of public power.

No matter how long it takes, governments at all levels need to get rid of such an irresponsible mentality.

Discovery of such precious wood even a couple of years ago used to immediately attract the attention of local government departments. Officials would rush to claim that such wood should belong to the government. Why do they no longer show any interest now?

It is the interest that makes the difference. Taking care of such precious wood previously would possibly bring economic benefit to a local government department. But now given the severity of the campaign against corruption, it is risky to do so.

On the other hand, some local government officials are voting with their feet on the anti-graft fight by trying to do as little as possible. Their mentality is that the more work one does, the more chances there are for one to commit an error, which will possibly result in disciplinary penalties. So why not try to shirk one's responsibility as much as possible?

However, when an increasing number of government officials cherish such a mentality, their inaction is actually doing a disservice to the credibility of both the Communist Party of China and the government. That explains why inaction on the part of government officials is no less harmful than the abuse of power to the economic development and social progress of this country.