The Supervision Committee of the Tongliang District Commission for Discipline Inspection of Chongqing Municipality has listed village-level small and micro projects as the focus of supervision, and used mechanisms such as "room-group-local" linkage to focus on discovering and rectifying corruption and work style problems in the construction of village-level projects. The picture shows that recently, discipline inspection and supervision cadres of the district came to Shaba Village, Pulu Street, to learn about the relevant situation on the spot. Photo by Sun Zhengcui
In recent years, with the continuous and in-depth advancement of rural revitalization, from roads, ditches, tap water and other infrastructure, to land reclamation, environmental improvement, toilet renovation and other special projects, various livelihood projects have been vigorously implemented, the major livelihood events that the masses are concerned about and the key and small things that they feel every day have gradually improved, and all kinds of urgent and difficult problems have been effectively solved, and people's sense of gain and happiness has been improved.
Village-level small and micro projects related to the vital interests of the masses are small but numerous, and are the key and difficult points in the supervision of grassroots small and micro powers. In some localities, the problem of individual grassroots cadres directly interfering or indirectly participating in engineering projects is prominent, infringing on the vital interests of the masses and damaging the image of the party and government.
What links are the links of village-level small and micro projects that are prone to breed micro-corruption? How to govern? The reporter conducted an interview.
Due to the small amount of the project, the simple approval procedure, and the wide range of points, some village-level small and micro engineering projects have problems such as inadequate supervision
In December 2022, the Discipline Inspection Commission of Lixian County, Hunan Province, released news that Liu Zhenzi, former secretary of the general branch of the party in Taiqing Village, Ganxitan Town, was given a serious warning within the party, and Sun Xiaoli, the former accountant of the village, was admonished to talk. After investigation, in September 2019, Liu Zhenzi arranged for Sun Xiaoli to declare the planting area of trees in previous years as the project of that year, and falsely set up funds of 41,870 yuan. Yi Jihong, director of the Case Supervision and Management Office of the Lixian Discipline Inspection Commission, said: "In recent years, there have been relatively many small and micro projects at the village level, and a few village cadres like Liu Zhenzi have started crooked brains to collect funds to cover illegal reception expenses that cannot be recorded. ”
Village-level small and micro projects mainly refer to engineering construction projects with the village (community) as the main body of implementation, the construction single contract price is low, and the engineering volume is small. Its business guidance, project review, organization of bidding, fund management, etc. involve multiple functional departments such as development and reform, civil affairs, finance, and auditing.
Zhu Lin, director of the Party Style and Government Style Supervision Office of the Discipline Inspection Commission of Linshui County, Sichuan Province, said that village-level small and micro engineering projects usually include the following categories: first, agricultural production and living infrastructure projects, such as the construction and improvement of mountain ponds, reservoirs, irrigation canals, to ensure drinking water safety, biogas, electricity, agricultural industry development, etc.; the second is transportation infrastructure projects, such as the construction of production roads; The third is the settlement environment improvement projects, such as garbage, sewage, black and odorous water treatment, toilets, dangerous housing reconstruction, etc.; The fourth is social development infrastructure projects, such as the construction of village libraries, health rooms, cultural squares, etc.
With the increasingly standardized management of "three capitals" at the village level, the phenomenon of openly misappropriating public funds has greatly decreased, and some party members and cadres have targeted small and micro projects at the village level.
"Due to the small amount of the project, the simple approval procedure, and the wide range of points, some village-level small and micro engineering projects have problems such as inadequate supervision." Zhang Gequn, a cadre of the Party Style and Government Style Supervision Office of the Zhenjiang City Commission for Discipline Inspection and Supervision in Jiangsu Province, said.
Jiang Yong, member of the Standing Committee of the Discipline Inspection Commission and member of the Supervision Committee of Kaihua County, Zhejiang Province, told reporters that since 2020, the problems in the field of small and micro engineering at the village level in the county have mainly shown the characteristics of "three highs, one wide and two concentrations": from the perspective of letters and visits, it is manifested in the high rate of village cadres being reflected, the rate of real-name reporting, and the high rate of verification; Judging from the inspection of the county party committee, the administrative villages with violations of rules and disciplines in this field cover a wide area; Judging from the investigation and handling of cases, the types of problems are mainly concentrated in the two categories of village cadres illegally contracting and meddling in projects and taking project funds, and the personnel category is concentrated in village chief cadres.
In Taicang City, Jiangsu Province, since the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, there have been more than 9,500 village-level small and micro engineering construction projects in the city, involving a total of 3.368 billion yuan. "The supervision of some projects is the responsibility of the village (community), which is both 'athlete' and 'referee', which may have an impact on the supervision effect." Cheng Yun, head of the Party Style and Government Style Supervision Office of the Taicang City Commission for Discipline Inspection and Supervision, said.
Cheng Yun believes that there may be the following problems in the current such projects: first, the institutional system needs to be standardized, the operation specifications and processes are uneven in various places, and the implementation standards are not unified enough; Second, regulatory responsibilities still need to be refined, information asymmetry between different functional departments, and regulatory synergy needs to be further improved; Third, the project management is not professional enough, and some grassroots staff are difficult to find and effectively deal with problems in time due to insufficient experience in project construction management; Fourth, there are still certain loopholes in process control.
Regarding the problem of process loopholes, Lu Qiao, a member of the Taicang Municipal Supervision Commission, gave an example: "According to the existing regulations, villages (communities) can bid for small and micro engineering projects through direct contract issuance, invitation to bidding, etc., although the amount is small, it may also cause micro-corruption." For example, the project acceptance content mainly focuses on the completion of the project, and the comprehensive assessment of the project quality needs to be strengthened, and so on. ”
Don't do it yourself with relatives and friends, don't do it in packing, don't do it in public, don't do it privately... Some village cadres illegally contracted or interfered in village-level small and micro projects in various forms and renovated by means
"Village-level small and micro projects seem small, but they are connected to the 'great people's livelihood'." A relevant responsible comrade of the Party Style and Government Style Supervision Office of the Zhenjiang City Commission for Discipline Inspection and Supervision said: "The implementation of some projects is not open and transparent, and there are management loopholes of varying degrees in project contracting, construction management, and cost settlement, which directly harm the vital interests of the masses, and the masses deeply hate this." ”
Based on the investigation and handling of cases in recent years, the Zhenjiang Municipal Commission for Discipline Inspection and Supervision sorted out the main manifestations of violations of discipline and law in the field of village-level small and micro projects, including ten categories, including reducing the whole to zero, giving preferential treatment to relatives and friends, fictitious projects, direct contract issuance, building first and supplementing later, subcontracting in violation of regulations, arbitrary changes, high-priced settlement, dereliction of duty, and absence of performance of duties.
"Judging from the investigation and handling situation in the past three years, some village cadres have contracted or interfered in village-level small and micro projects in various forms and renovated methods, and there is a tendency for violations of discipline to be hidden and mutated, and there are difficulties in supervision, such as difficulty in discovery, identification, and supervision." Wang Lu, director of the Third Discipline Inspection and Supervision Office of the Discipline Inspection Commission of Longyou County in Zhejiang Province, summarized such problems as "three things not to do and three things to do", that is, not to do relatives and friends, not to do things in packaging, not to do things in private, not to do in private.
Pavement pouring, ditch repair, road pipe laying, parking lot construction... In February 2021, after winning the bid for the overall style renovation project of Caolang Village, Huzhen Town, Longyou County, a company outsourced the above-mentioned municipal project to Chen Moubo, the son of Chen Mouxiang, the secretary of the village's party branch, for construction, but Chen Mouxiang did not stop it. In April 2022, Chen Mouxiang was warned and punished by the party.
"According to the 'Ten Prohibitions' on the Performance of Duties by Village Cadres in Longyou County, village cadres themselves, their relatives, and close relatives are strictly prohibited from participating in bidding and contracting for projects and projects constructed using public or collective funds within the township (street)." Wang Lu said, "Some village cadres always think that 'fertile water does not flow into the fields of outsiders,' or directly contract or participate in the village project in the name of themselves, their relatives and specific related persons, or use the influence of their position to ask the winning unit to subcontract or subcontract the project to specific related persons, or designate specific related persons to provide and sell the required manpower, materials, equipment, etc. to the contractor, so as to profit from it." ”
In order to circumvent bidding, some village cadres split the project that should have been tendered into multiple sub-projects, and then handed it over to the designated personnel in the form of direct contract issuance or invitation to contract issuance. Li Qiansheng, a member of the village committee who took the lead in implementing beautiful villages in Shizhai Village, Baima Town, Lishui District, Nanjing City, Jiangsu Province, illegally divided the 559,500 yuan project into 47 small engineering projects. In May 2022, Li Qiansheng was warned and punished by the party.
A small number of village cadres have profited from stealthily contracting projects in their own villages by contracting in partnership with others, taking contracts in disguised ways in the name of others, subcontracting and subcontracting from others, borrowing their names to be affiliated with enterprises, and investing in joint ventures. Some village cadres even demanded dividends on the grounds of "helping to advance the project." Ma Jianhua, secretary of the party committee of Zhabei Village, Hezhuang Street, former Dajiangdong Industrial Cluster, Hangzhou City, Zhejiang Province, and Zheng Jianlong, director of the village committee, provided assistance to Lu Moumou, an individual project contractor, in the village's collective land lease and coordination of villagers' related matters, agreeing that "three people will do the project in partnership and divide the project profits equally". Ma and Zheng each received 830,000 yuan in cash from Lu without actually contributing. Ma Jianhua and Zheng Jianlong were expelled from the party. The court sentenced them to seven years and six months in prison, fined 30,000 yuan, and confiscated 40,000 yuan of personal property.
Overall planning and comprehensive management for bidding and bidding, capital supervision, village affairs supervision, and post-bid management
"A major feature of village-level small and micro projects is that the targets are small and the number is large, which is easy to breed 'micro-corruption'. Irregular engineering procedures, untimely assessments, and inadequate supervision are important triggers for village cadres to falsely receive personal shares, favor relatives and friends, demand for cards, and embezzlement and embezzlement. Dong Xiaohai, director of the Third Supervision and Inspection Office of the Discipline Inspection Commission of Taizhou City, Zhejiang Province, said.
It is understood that in the links of project motion, contract issuance, cost management, material procurement, construction site supervision, settlement and acceptance, etc., violations of discipline and law are relatively prone to occur, such as arbitrarily awarding contracts, designated bidding, inflating the amount of work, inflating the unit price of the project, etc. are all common tricks.
According to Yang Jun, deputy director of the Party Style and Government Style Supervision Office of the Discipline Inspection Commission of Jiande City, Zhejiang Province, there are three problems that need to be focused on: first, the bidding process, which is prone to collusion or fragmentation, circumvention of bidding and other behaviors; Second, in the process of project change, once the implementation of the approval system is not strict, some projects may be changed without approval; Third, in the process of project settlement, some projects have problems such as false declaration of construction quantities and failure to deduct fees in accordance with regulations. In addition, the intermediaries hired by relevant departments are not rigorous in their work, and the phenomenon of overcounting the project price also occurs from time to time.
"The loopholes in financial payments are noteworthy." Guo Liping, deputy director of the Second Discipline Inspection and Supervision Office of the Discipline Inspection Commission of Qiantang District, Hangzhou City, Zhejiang Province, gave an example that there may be problems such as failure to comply with the contract after completion, payment ahead of schedule, and inconsistency between the recipient and the winning bidder and the contract signator. During the inspection of the Qiantang District Party Committee, it was found that the project of Gaosha Community Micro Fire Station in Xiasha Street paid a one-time payment of 88,900 yuan at the time of settlement, and the quality guarantee money was not withheld as agreed in the contract.
"Why are there frequent problems with village-level small and micro projects? The reasons can be found on two levels. According to Huang Jun, secretary of the Discipline Inspection Commission and director of the Supervision Office of Tangyuankou Township, Jiangshan City, Zhejiang Province, from the village level, some village cadres have a weak sense of rules and regulations, and are not familiar with relevant requirements, do not learn or do not use them; From the perspective of the higher level, the relevant functional departments, township and street guidance and supervision and audit control are not strict, there is a problem of "picking up large leaks and small leaks" in the supervision of engineering projects, and there is a lack of "looking back" for small and micro projects in on-site management and process management. Relevant responsible comrades of the Party Style and Government Style Supervision Office of the Zhenjiang Municipal Commission for Discipline Inspection and Supervision also have similar feelings: some townships and towns attach more importance to the implementation of projects at their own level, but "only record but do not check, only reimburse but not audit" small and micro projects at the village level.
Due to the many types and wide distribution of village-level small and micro projects, it is difficult for management departments such as agriculture and rural areas and bidding centers to extend their supervision tentacles to every link, and the supervision of projects is mostly led by township and town staff members or village-level discipline inspection committees.
"There are a thousand lines above, a needle below, the tasks of town and village cadres are relatively heavy, most of the supervisors are part-time, and to a certain extent, there are problems of no time to supervise, do not want to supervise, and are unwilling to supervise." In addition, due to blind trust in the bidding agency, supervision and other participants, problems such as 'construction supervision depends on telephone, project acceptance depends on visual inspection' and other problems arise. Relevant responsible comrades of the Discipline Inspection Commission and Supervision Committee of Lai'an County in Anhui Province believe that the lack of a strong sense of responsibility and the formality of supervision are important reasons.
"Some village-level small and micro projects have specifications in the form of the ring, but in actual work there is a problem of emphasizing deployment over implementation." According to Shi Lei, director of the 10th Supervision and Inspection Office of the Discipline Inspection Commission of Zhangjiagang City, Jiangsu Province, village-level small and micro projects belong to village-level affairs, with small matters and many links, involving finance, auditing and other departments, and should be aimed at overall planning and comprehensive management of bidding and bidding, capital supervision, village affairs supervision, and post-bid management.
Clarify responsibilities and authority, improve supervision and synergy, consolidate the responsibilities of all parties, and avoid the allocation of special funds
The winning bid amount is accurate, the payment method and cycle are all clear... Recently, the bidding results of an elevator equipment replacement project of Wangjiang Economic Cooperative, Ziyang Street, Shangcheng District, Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province were released. The board of directors of EC immediately announced the results in detail on the collective "three capital" full-life cycle supervision platform, and accepted the supervision of the Ziyang Street Discipline Work Committee, the ECO Supervisory Board and all members. "Every small project is supervised by thousands of people, and if there is something tricky, it is easy to find." Zheng Jun, a member of the Wangjiang Economic Cooperation Agency, said.
"Sunlight is the best preservative." Lu Aimin, secretary of the Ziyang Street Discipline Work Committee, introduced that the collective "three capital" full-life cycle supervision platform includes all elements such as village-level small and micro projects and collective asset management, and opens the functions of browsing, leaving messages and reporting for all members of the Economic Cooperation Agency. The platform can use data comparison to give risk warnings, such as finding abnormal phenomena such as related parties winning bids, abnormal fund payments, and abnormally high and low prices of similar projects, it will issue an early warning to the street discipline work committee.
If there are any problems, we will solve whatever problems we have, and rectify whatever problems are prominent. In 2022, the Zhenjiang Municipal Commission for Discipline Inspection and Supervision carried out comprehensive visits and investigations, letters and visits, "12345" citizen hotline problem feedback, and data on corruption and work style problems around the masses in recent years, and carried out centralized treatment for prominent problems such as circumvention of bidding for village-level small and micro project splitting projects, black box operations, project contracting favors to relatives and friends, and fictitious projects to obtain funds, and a total of 53 cases and 77 people were investigated and dealt with.
In view of the frequent problems in the field of village-level small and micro projects and the difficulty of supervision, Xi Jianping, director of the Fifth Discipline Inspection and Supervision Office of the Discipline Inspection Commission of Longmatan District, Luzhou City, Sichuan Province, suggested: clarify responsibilities and authority, and formulate corresponding implementation rules for important power matters such as decision-making on major village-level matters, the use of large funds, village-level project bidding and bidding, and village-level seal management; Improve the joint force of supervision, give full play to the role of the director of the village supervision committee and the supervisor of the village party style and government style, strengthen the docking and communication with auditing, inspection and other departments, and focus on small and micro projects at the village level; Consolidate the responsibilities of all parties, clarify the responsibilities of relevant personnel in project management, effectively improve the awareness of discipline and law among town and village cadres, promote regular supervision and inspection of relevant competent departments and neighborhoods and towns, and avoid the allocation of special funds.
The Supervision Commission of the Chongqing Banan District Commission for Discipline Inspection urges relevant departments to further refine and implement regulatory responsibilities, standardize the whole process of project preparation, contract issuance, construction, change, acceptance, settlement, and filing, strengthen the management and use of funds, and reduce integrity risks. The Supervision Commission of the Binjiang District Commission for Discipline Inspection and Supervision of Hangzhou City, Zhejiang Province has promoted the development of a smart seal management system, strictly stipulating the content of village seals and the authority for approval, so that the exercise of power can be traced throughout the process. The Jiaozhou Discipline Inspection Commission of Shandong Province further enlarged the role of village-level supervision as an "outpost", and equipped and hired more than 200 village (community) discipline inspection committee members and village (residence) affairs supervision committee directors to carry out close supervision of deliberative procedures, bidding processes, on-site supervision, project quality acceptance and other links.
Source: Website of the State Supervision Commission of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection