Where is the paperwork for that?

As Ben and I biked around some rural areas of Shan Dong, it was not uncommon to see a lone worker, seemingly in the middle of nowhere, sweeping the road or weeding the flower gardens next to the highways. Who told him to go there and sweep or weed? Where is the paperwork? Sometimes it seemed to me that the highway department must have told him, "You are employed. We will pay you something. Now go out and sweep the road everyday." No supervision.