A department of Nanjing Municipal Commission of Housing and Urban-Rural Development (Nanjing CHURD) has allotted the OZARK brand outdoors jackets each at a value of 2,998 yuan (US$455) to employees, who mostly stay in-office, the Yangtse Evening Post reported Thursday.

According to the report, the Security Evaluation Department of Nanjing CHURD bought over 50 OZARK jackets recently from the Central Shopping Center, spending averagely 1,950 yuan (US$296) on each, 65 percent of the normal price.

A responsible person from the department said that buying unified jackets for the staff was for maintaining the image of the department, and the purchase has got approval from authorities in charge, according to the report.

The official alleged that buying outdoors jackets as working clothes accorded with the internal regulations.

But approval documents for the purchase failed to be shown to the media and the department stated that the person in charge is currently in puerperal period.

Staff members were wearing the uniforms when a reporter from the Yangtse Evening Post paid the department a visit at around 2:00 pm on Monday.

"I can't say whether the outdoors jacket is warmer than down coat. In fact, they are the same to me, as I always work in the office," a staff from the department told the reporter.

An official surnamed Zhao, responsible for financial planning at the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, told the Global Times that to ease the financial burden and reduce the misleading image of the authorities, the ministry required all subordinate construction staffs in the construction system to rectify their attire in 2004.

The State Council jointly with the Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Supervision issued a notification in 2004, regulating that only the former has the right to authorize on uniform-related issues, and any authorities else were not qualified with making the approval.

And according to the regulation, the construction domain does not belong to the occupations, such as public security, judiciary, or customs which were approved with the uniform clothes.