View of a bus with an advertisement for Chinese online shopping site JD.com, also known as Jingdong.com, in Yichang city, central China's Hubei province, 17 September 2015. [Photo/IC]

A local office of the Beijing municipal bureau for industry and commerce has been in the news these days because it is accused of letting employees of the e-retail giant Jingdong work with officials in their office building.

The administration explained to the media that the company employees were there to help officials handle customers' complaints and answer the public's queries about e-shopping. Jingdong also rushed to clarify that their employees never assumed any official responsibilities.

However, the invitation of company staff to join the officials in their offices appears fishy, even if the company employees were there to help. A key role of the bureau is to supervise companies such as Jingdong. Therefore bringing the supervised under its own roof is, at best, improper.

By so doing, the officials are revealing their inability to communicate with the public despite technological advances. Their action and declared motive expose both their lack of capability in handling people's complaints and weak integrity.

Meanwhile, why this particular company alone was favored in this way has to be clarified. If it was because of too many complaints involving that company, then the company needs to be looked at by these very officials.

As the industry and commerce departments are to ensure that customers' interests are not compromised, the officials would be wise to discontinue such practices with Jingdong.

And to dispel public suspicions of collusion, the Beijing people's procuratorate, which has received written complaints about the incident, should investigate to make sure there have been no shady deals involved. Those found to have engaged in any wrongdoings or misbehavior should be held accountable.