Wan'an County Municipal Supervision Bureau failed to enforce the law in accordance with the regulations and was complained by enterprises

Recently, Liu Rongfang, the person in charge of the Ruirong Oil Factory in Wan'an County, reported to the Jiangxi business all-media platform that the Wan'an County Market Supervision and Administration Bureau was suspected of violating law regulations when sampling the crude tea oil processed by the factory. In this regard, the Wan'an County Market Supervision and Administration Bureau responded that the case exposed the lack of law enforcement literacy of individual law enforcement personnel, and the weak awareness of the rule of law and rules.

Jiangxi business all-media reporters investigated and found that because the local municipal supervision department found that there were potential food safety hazards in the testing of the company's related products, but did not implement the administrative compulsory measures of sealing and seizure, the company sold 34.39 tons of unqualified camellia oil (leaching method camellia seed crude oil).

Text/Jiangnan Metropolis Daily all-media reporter Wu Jianfeng

Complaints:

The municipal supervision department failed to enforce the law in accordance with regulations

According to Liu Rongfang, Wan'an Ruirong Oil Factory has been operating in Shaping Town of the county for many years, and its main business is to purchase tea cakes and process them into wool tea oil, which is not a refined oil, can not be eaten directly, and is not directly facing the market and consumers, and requires lower-level refining manufacturers to go through dozens of processes before they can be listed.

Liu Rongfang said that in late October 2023, the Wan'an County Market Supervision and Administration Bureau conducted a random inspection of the factory's crude tea oil and did not pay for samples as required. In January 2024, when law enforcement officers first recorded Liu Rongfang, only law enforcement officer Zou Jianbin was present, but the names of two law enforcement officers (Zou Jianbin and Huang An) were signed on the materials. Zou Jianbin was the only one present, and he called to ask for the law enforcement card number of Huang An, another law enforcement officer. Liu Rongfang believes that there is an act of signing on behalf of others.

In addition, the people of the Shaping Branch of the Wan'an County Municipal Supervision Bureau (hereinafter referred to as the Shaping Branch) did not affix seals when they seized the relevant products. During this period, I was always asked to admit the fine, and even the relevant person in charge of the Shaping Branch asked me how much my father was willing to pay to settle the matter. By January 31, the fine they had raised had been reduced from 2 million yuan to more than 1 million yuan, then to 3.5 million yuan, and finally to 200,000 yuan through a third person. Liu Rongfang believes that the local municipal supervision department was too casual in handling the case and did not strictly follow the relevant regulations to enforce the law, which affected the operation of the enterprise.

Response:

A special team was formed to investigate relevant matters

After receiving the complaint from the enterprise, the Jiangxi business all-media platform immediately transferred the relevant situation to the Ji'an Municipal Business Office. On April 24, the Wan'an County Market Supervision and Administration Bureau gave a detailed reply to the case. According to the bureau, the bureau's party committee immediately talked to the organizers of the relevant cases, and organized the case handling agencies to talk collectively to remind them, and at the same time instructed the bureau's supervision office, the bureau's law enforcement unit, and the bureau's law enforcement inspection bureau to each assign a staff member to form a special class to investigate the matters reported by the whistleblower.

After investigation, it was found that when handling the case, the law enforcement personnel communicated with the parties in areas where their language was not standardized and rigorous, they did not post seals on the spot when taking administrative compulsory measures of "sealing", they did not make legal documents carefully, and there were problems such as inaccurate wording.

In response to the problem of unpaid sampling, the bureau said that the law enforcement officers made a "food safety sampling test sampling sheet" at the sampling site, recording the sample purchase fee of 34 yuan/kg, and Liu Shengxiang (Liu Rongfang's father) calculated, the sample fee totaled 34 yuan, and the law enforcement officers repeatedly said that they wanted to pay for the sample, Liu Shengxiang said that the cost was not much, and refused to charge the sample fee. In this regard, Liu Rongfang believes that as a law enforcement officer, she should be informed that this is their law enforcement procedure, and they must pay for it, and they must be given a receipt, and the law enforcement officer cannot not pay because her father said no.

In response to the issue of law enforcement signatures, the bureau said that after the case was filed, on January 9, 2024, case handlers Zou Jianbin and Huang An contacted Liu Rongfang to go to the office of the Law Enforcement Inspection Bureau to inquire about and investigate him, and other staff of the Law Enforcement Inspection Bureau were present in the office at that time. In the middle of the investigation, Huang An left the office on official business, and when Zou Jianbin filled in the information of the law enforcement personnel in the interrogation and investigation record, he did not remember Huang An's law enforcement license number, so he called him to ask for the law enforcement certificate number, and Huang An returned to the office to participate in the inquiry and investigation before the investigation was completed, confirmed the content of the inquiry and investigation recorded with the parties, and signed the printed interrogation and investigation record, and there was no substitute signature.

In response to the problem of arbitrary seizure, the bureau said that on January 9 this year, when the Office of the Law Enforcement Inspection Bureau inquired and investigated the parties, it was learned that when the Shaping Branch delivered the inspection report in December 2023, it did not implement the administrative compulsory measures of sealing and seizure, and the parties still sold 34.39 tons of tea oil knowing that the test of the tea oil to be sold was unqualified. Considering that the party to sell the tea oil failed to test and there were potential food safety hazards, Zou Jianbin communicated with the Laws and Regulations Unit and believed that the unqualified 25.61 tons of unqualified tea oil should be sealed and seized administrative compulsory measures.

Individual law enforcement officers lack law enforcement literacy

In response to the issue that the punishment can be "counteroffered", the bureau said that in the course of questioning and investigation, Liu Rongfang repeatedly asked to be informed of the final penalty amount on the grounds of cooperating with the investigation, and the case-handling personnel Zou Jianbin informed that the penalty amount was not determined by any person, and that a decision could only be made after collective discussion based on the final investigation results. During the questioning and investigation, Zou Jianbin clearly informed the party that in view of the fact that the party knew that the test was unqualified but still sold the case, and the amount involved was large, it must be transferred to the public security organ in accordance with the law.

However, Liu Rongfang reported that the market supervision department asked the company to admit the fine. She provided the reporter with a recording of the call, in which the relevant person in charge of the Shaping Municipal Supervision Bureau asked Liu Rongfang's father: "How much money do you think you are willing to pay to end this matter?" In this regard, on April 25, Xiao Jinming, director of the Wan'an County Market Supervision and Administration Bureau, told the Jiangxi business all-media reporter that this is just that it is not easy for grassroots case-handling personnel to consider the enterprise, and first ask the enterprise preliminarily, but how much the final punishment is to be discussed collectively. If the case involves a criminal case, it is not possible to substitute a penalty for a sentence.

In its response, the Wan'an County Market Supervision and Administration Bureau also said that the handling of the case exposed problems such as the lack of law enforcement literacy, awareness of the rule of law, and weak awareness of rules by individual law enforcement personnel. In order to further standardize law enforcement and case handling, and strengthen warnings and reminders, the Party Committee of the Economic Bureau has decided to instruct the organizers of the case to make a review in the overall situation, and require all law enforcement personnel to draw inferences from one case and take this as a warning, effectively strengthen the study of laws, regulations and related documents, enhance the awareness of legal discipline, standardize words and deeds, ensure that law enforcement is standardized, fair, and civilized, and realize the organic unity of the political, legal, and social effects of law enforcement and case handling.

Lawyer:

The administrative acts of the regulatory authorities violate legal procedures

In response to this case, lawyer Hu of Jiangxi Qiuzheng Ward Law Firm said that according to Articles 144 and 149 of the Food Safety Law of the People's Republic of China and Article 408-1 of the Criminal Law of the People's Republic of China, it can be seen that the people's governments at or above the county level have food safety supervision and management, health administration, If the agricultural administrative and other departments fail to investigate and deal with food safety accidents in accordance with the regulations, or fail to deal with the food safety accident report in a timely manner, resulting in the expansion or spread of the accident, the person in charge who is directly responsible and other persons directly responsible shall be given the punishment of recording a major demerit; if the circumstances are more serious, they shall be given the punishment of demotion or dismissal; if the circumstances are serious, they shall be dismissed; if serious consequences are caused, the principal responsible person shall also take the blame and resign; and if the staff of the state organ responsible for the supervision and management of food and drug safety are involved, abuse their power or neglect their duties, and fail to investigate and deal with the serious food and drug safety violations found in accordance with the regulations, and cause serious consequences or other serious circumstancesshall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than five years or short-term detention, and where especially serious consequences are caused or there are other especially serious circumstances, shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than five years but not more than ten years.

In this case, the food safety supervision and administration department (hereinafter referred to as the "regulatory department") conducted random inspections on the food produced and sold by the food producers and traders, and delivered the inspection report to the food producer and trader that failed the food inspection. Subsequently, the regulatory authorities also issued and served the "Decision on the Implementation of Administrative Compulsory Measures" (Wan Shi Jian Compulsory [2024] No. 006) to the food producers and traders, but failed to implement administrative compulsory measures such as sealing or seizure in a timely manner, resulting in the unqualified food entering the market; If serious consequences are caused and criminal offenses are involved, the special investigation team may transfer the case file materials to the supervision organs for investigation and transfer them for review and prosecution.