There is no service with a license, and you don't care about the wall

Recently, when the author visited some villages in a northern province, some village cadres reported that there are still some formalism and increasing the burden on the village level in the local area, for example, some posts and mechanisms are more brand than content, higher-level inspections and investigations are formal, and it is difficult to account for unclear fees.

In recent years, the state has continued to deepen and expand the work of reducing the burden on the grassroots and improving the level of grassroots governance in rural areas. Many localities have successively introduced specific measures to reduce the burden on village-level organizations. Grassroots cadres said that at present, remarkable results have been achieved in rectifying formalism and bureaucracy, but there are still many forms of formalism in some fields. The interviewed experts suggested that we should establish and improve the promotion mechanism for the implementation of grassroots burden reduction, optimize the assessment and evaluation system, and truly loosen the constraints for the grassroots level.

The walls are full of signs, and there are cards but no service

When the author visited a village in a northern province, many village cadres asked the author to "visit" the signs of various mechanisms on the wall. The village cadres said that many signs may not have any effect, but they must be there because they need to be checked.

In many villages in the province, this writer saw that in addition to posting various forms of public matters, the walls of the office halls and offices of the village committees were also full of signs of various sizes, colors, and names. For example, public legal service offices, ethical banks, comprehensive management centers, cooperatives, etc., some of them have more than one brand for the same work.

In a village committee, the author saw that the "ethical bank" included eight brands, including a name brand, a review team, and management methods, and hung an entire wall. When asked what the use of the "ethical bank" was, the village cadres explained that it was the higher-level department that asked them to hang it, saying that they would come to inspect it, and it was not very clear how to carry out the "ethical bank", and no specific guidance and activities were carried out.

In the village committee of another village, the village cadres took the author to a small warehouse with dozens of signs stacked inside. The village cadres said that many signs had to be checked, but there was no place to hang them on the wall, so they had to be stacked in the warehouse first, and then find a place to hang them when they came to check.

Some village cadres said that each brand corresponds to a function, and there will be a complete set of rules and regulations behind many brands, and the responsibility for these tasks is borne by the village cadres. They said that many of the mechanism brands have not really played a role and have not carried out activities for many years. The interviewed cadres said that "there is no service with a license, and there is no care on the wall", and the grassroots position should not be a "listed position".

"Useless posts" and indiscriminate fees increase the financial burden at the village level

Some village cadres reported that in recent years, agricultural machinery and agricultural vehicles have frequently entered and exited the village during spring plowing and autumn harvest. In order to ensure the safety of rural road traffic during the busy agricultural season, the higher-level departments require each village to set up a "traffic persuasion" post at the entrance of the village. However, village cadres said that traffic counselors consume manpower and material resources, and it is difficult to play a role, and the form is greater than the content.

Some villages even arranged for more than a dozen people to take turns as traffic counselors. These people spend nearly 10 hours a day at the traffic guidance station at the entrance of the village, and are responsible for reminding and correcting villagers who drive agricultural vehicles in violation of regulations, working for four or five months a year. A village cadre said that the traffic counselors do not have any law enforcement powers, and they cannot control people at all, so they have become decorations, only used to cope with inspections, and the village collective has to spend tens of thousands of yuan in labor costs every year.

Some of the fees do not work or are "unknown". Village cadres reported that every year, some of the fees charged by the higher-level departments did not play a role, but they had to pay the money. Some village cadres said that the town has to pay 4,000 yuan a year to hire legal counsel for each village, and no one knows the legal adviser, and no matter whether there is a need or not, they must pay the money.

Every year after the autumn harvest and before the spring ploughing, an important task in villages and towns is to "ban straw burning". Some village cadres reported that the local police station demanded 3,000 yuan from the village for the purpose of inspecting the straw burning ban work, which was regarded as a "hardship fee", but this money was "unknown" and could not be reimbursed. The town asked the village to find a name, and the village could only put the money into environmental remediation and other projects to repay the account.

Investigation and inspection are not "grounded", and the grassroots are tired of coping

Some township and town cadres have reported that at present, they are receiving a lot of investigations, visits, and inspections, and they have received eight waves of guests in one day, and they are tired of coping with them. He said: In many higher-level investigations, townships and towns received notices only one day in advance, and the higher-level departments sent an outline for investigation and study, which asked them to understand the situation of ordinary peasant households and large grain growers, and some questions were answered by township and town cadres. In order to fully prepare, the township cadres communicated with the village cadres and large grain growers many times, sorted out the situation and then reported to the research team through the symposium. He also mentioned that some units went to villages and towns to investigate and see the flowers, and did not have in-depth exchanges and discuss problems with everyone, but they all needed to be accompanied by village and town cadres.

In a village committee, there is a thick stack of A4 paper stacked on the table, which is full of hundreds of sheets. This is a well house management log printed out by the village cadres, which is filled with information such as the duration of water supply, whether it is cleaned and disinfected, etc. The author randomly picked up a few to view, and the content is basically the same. The village cadres told reporters that they had to fill in one every day, and that the higher departments would come to check these logs every year and take them as an important credential for the management of the well house.

However, as far as the author knows, the village's well houses are maintained by specific villagers and do not fill in the management log, which is filled in by the village cadres.

Reducing the burden on the grassroots is "real".

In recent years, the state has made it clear that the burden on the grassroots should be reduced, the problems of formalism and bureaucracy should be resolutely rectified, and the work of reducing the burden on the grassroots level should be continuously deepened and expanded, so as to improve the level of grassroots governance in rural areas.

In 2019, the General Office of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China issued the "Notice on Solving the Outstanding Problems of Formalism and Reducing the Burden on the Grassroots", which requires solving the problems of formalism that plague the grassroots and effectively reducing the burden on the grassroots. In 2020, the General Office of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the General Office of the State Council issued the "Opinions on Regulating the Work Affairs, Mechanism Brands and Certification Matters of Village-level Organizations", aiming to further free village-level organizations and village cadres from the shackles of formalism and continuously improve the level of rural grassroots governance.

Many places have actively implemented the spirit of the central documents and successively introduced relevant measures. For example, Qinghai Province has reduced the number of items in which village-level organizations assist the government by more than 67%, and cancelled five types of certification items that should not be issued by village-level organizations in accordance with laws and regulations; Hubei Province has introduced five parts and 21 measures to greatly streamline documents, vigorously compress meetings, and establish a long-term mechanism for reducing the burden on the grassroots; Gansu Province has introduced measures to promote the rectification of formalism to reduce the burden on the grassroots, and put forward specific requirements in 14 aspects, such as reducing the number of meetings, improving the quality and efficiency of supervision, and streamlining research.

Some grassroots cadres said that there are still some things that seem to be standardizing, guiding, and helping the grassroots, but in fact they are the work of bureaucracy and formalism. The key to reducing the burden on the grassroots is the word "real", and it is necessary to see whether the practical problems have been solved and how the masses have been evaluated, so that the front-line cadres can have more time and energy to serve the masses and start a business.

Practice the correct view of political performance. We must resolutely prevent "patting our heads on the decision" and put an end to "performance projects", "face projects" and "new image projects". Based on reality, optimize and improve the implementation mechanism of decision-making and deployment, and resolutely rectify problems such as simplification of implementation, "one-size-fits-all", and layer-by-layer increases.

Establish a long-term mechanism for reducing the burden on the grassroots. The interviewed cadres suggested that a special working mechanism for reducing the burden on the grassroots at all levels should be established and improved, and all localities and departments should earnestly fulfill their main responsibilities, coordinate and promote the implementation of the measures, and ensure that the measures introduced are implemented.

Optimize the assessment and evaluation system. The interviewed cadres believe that the assessment should highlight the investigation of the people's feelings, look at the actual performance, compare the actual results, light trace management, form a good result orientation, and liberate the grassroots cadres from the fatigue of the "material ledger" and the "inspection report". They suggested that higher authorities should give priority to investigations and inspections in places where problems are concentrated, contradictions are prominent, and work cannot be opened, so as to promote all localities to continuously create new bright spots, create new experiences, and develop more balanced. All departments should further sort out the mechanism brands and certification items that have no basis in laws, regulations or policies, no financial guarantees, no actual effectiveness, and are not recognized by the masses, and make great efforts to reduce the burden on the grassroots.