Officials attend the opening ceremony of the contest in Pinggu district, Beijing, on April 15. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

The last day?of 2015 saw three local officials in the Ngawa Tibetan and Qiang autonomous prefecture in Sichuan province, Southwest China, win 19 major awards in a local photography contest. Other winners remain unidentified. The cost of the contest was 700,000 yuan ($106,750), of which the local government provided 500,000 yuan. The Beijing Times says:

The total amount of the award prizes were 300,000 yuan. It is hard to avoid the suspicion that the three local officials were taking advantage of the competition to get bonuses.

Even though the contest was financially supported by the local government, it should still be an open and fair competition. And such competitions should not be tailored-made to suit the hobbies of certain officials.

By letting three officials win the major awards, the local government has damaged its image. Even though the officials are also residents with the right to participate, as one of the three winners said, it is natural for such competitions to exclude anyone connected to the organizers or sponsors.

The local government also reportedly plans to hold singing and calligraphy contests. If the winners of these competitions are also officials, it will cause even more damage to the government.

In recent years, many corrupt officials have been found to have received great amounts of money to develop their personal hobbies. It should be checked if the officials in the prefecture are seeking benefits in a similar way.