Protect an enterprise, promote governance, and benefit one party
Hubei: The performance of procuratorial duties stimulates market vitality
Affirmed by the deputies of the National People's Congress
It's the height of summer, and it's full of prosperity. All the brewing in spring blooms in summer.
In February 2024, the Supreme People's Procuratorate issued the "Work Plan for the Special Action of "Procuratorial Protection of Enterprises", and decided to carry out the special action of "Procuratorial Protection of Enterprises" from February to December 2024.
The Hubei procuratorate has implemented the deployment of the Supreme People's Procuratorate to "protect" an enterprise, promote governance, and benefit one party with high-quality and efficient case handling. As of the end of June, in the special action of "procuratorial protection of enterprises", the province prosecuted crimes of disrupting market order in accordance with the law increased by 172.48% year-on-year, prosecuted crimes of infringing on the legitimate rights and interests of market entities increased by 43.8% year-on-year, and handled civil litigation supervision cases involving market entities increased by 51.64% year-on-year, recovering losses of 86.69 million yuan for market entities......
"The hard-won achievements have provided a strong judicial guarantee for Hubei to build a new highland of the national business environment!" Zhang Xiaolian, deputy to the National People's Congress, director of the Department of Immunology of the School of Basic Medical Sciences of Wuhan University, and director of the Hubei Provincial Key Laboratory of Allergy and Immune-related Diseases, affirmed this report card.
Protect the legitimate rights and interests of enterprises
"Efficient supervision and practical work, sincere for the people to solve the worries of enterprises." Recently, the person in charge of a cement company in Hubei, the victim of a job embezzlement case, went to the Echeng District Procuratorate of Ezhou City to express his gratitude. In this case of supervising the enforcement of the property part of the criminal judgment, the procuratorate was able to perform its duties and helped the victim recover more than 280,000 yuan in losses.
From March to October 2022, Cheng and four others repeatedly took advantage of the opportunity to transport coal to a cement company in Hubei Province to replace some high-calorific value coal with low-calorific value coal at Zhao's place, making profits from it, causing damage to the cement company's property. After investigation, Cheng and other 4 people illegally profited a total of more than 280,000 yuan.
In May 2024, the prosecutor of the Criminal Enforcement Prosecution Department of the Echeng District Procuratorate combed through the relevant data of the property-related part of the court's criminal judgment in the past three years, compared the data with the data of the court's enforcement system, and screened out 87 clues in the enforcement supervision case of the property-related part of the criminal judgment involving the enterprise victim, from which it was found that Cheng and other 4 people had not executed the property part of the embezzlement case.
When supervising the implementation of the fine, the prosecutor in charge noticed that the criminal verdict of Cheng and others stated that the four people needed to return more than 280,000 yuan to the cement company. Has the money been returned to the victim company? After reviewing the file, the prosecutor found that Cheng and four others returned more than 280,000 yuan to the case-handling agency in July 2023, but the money was not transferred with the case, and the cement company has not received the refund.
Capital is the blood of an enterprise. After the supervision of the procuratorate, the case-handling organ started the procedure for the return of the temporarily withheld funds, and the court filed a case for the execution of the fine and punishment of Cheng and other 4 people, and the cement company recently received more than 280,000 yuan in return. The person in charge of the company expressed his deep gratitude to the procuratorate for taking the initiative to safeguard the legitimate property rights and interests of the enterprise. At this point, a case of embezzlement has finally come to an end.
Wu, the owner of a trading company in Wuhan, was also in a good mood, and in the case of supervising the execution of a dispute over a sales contract of a trading company, the Wuhan Municipal Procuratorate helped the company recover more than 5.88 million yuan in the contract payment, and the case was rated by the Supreme People's Procuratorate as "Top Ten Typical Cases of Civil Procuratorate Promoting the Development and Growth of the Private Economy".
The Hong'an County Procuratorate invited Cheng Xing (right), a deputy to the National People's Congress, to pay a return visit to the handling of the case.
"Case handling is the carrier, quality and efficiency are the key, the mechanism is the support, and enterprise satisfaction is the core. I have learned that the Hubei procuratorial organs have closely focused on the work deployment of the Supreme People's Procuratorate, expressed their stance with actions, solved problems with mechanisms, and strived to make market entities feel safe and secure, with predictable development and protection of their rights and interests in procuratorial and case handling. Cheng Xing, a representative of the National People's Congress and a docent of the Jute Uprising in Hong'an County, Hubei Province and the Memorial Park of the Hubei-Henan-Anhui Soviet District, praised the results of the provincial procuratorate's special action of "procuratorial protection of enterprises", and she also specifically mentioned the "12 small special projects", that is, the 12 small special tasks deployed by the Hubei Provincial Procuratorate in combination with the actual work, including "protecting the legitimate rights and interests of private enterprises", "actively performing their duties in accordance with the law and escorting safe production", "deepening the compliance reform of enterprises involved in cases", "helping high-quality financial development" and "strengthening the comprehensive performance of intellectual property prosecution" and other 12 aspects. For example, the "protection of the legitimate rights and interests of private enterprises" small special requirements, to severely crack down on the crime of undermining the order of market competition, severe punishment of private enterprise internal corruption crimes, since the launch of the special work, Hubei procuratorial organs prosecuted private enterprises internal corruption crimes increased by 65.2% year-on-year.
The Yichang Yiting District Procuratorate "tailor-made" a series of "inter-work micro-law courses" for enterprises.
Under the guidance and supervision of the Hubei Provincial Procuratorate, the procuratorial organs at the city and county levels have promoted small special work with high standards. The Huanggang Municipal Procuratorate has formulated a list of special work responsibilities, implemented "one project, one list, one responsibility", and established a closed-loop implementation mechanism in which the "top leader" commands in advance, the leading group takes the lead, and the whole city is linked. In combination with the special work, the Xiangyang Municipal Procuratorate declared 18 practical projects to the local party committee and political and legal committee to optimize the business environment under the rule of law, and optimized the business environment under the rule of law with the requirements of project and path. The Suizhou Municipal Procuratorate and the city's business office countersigned opinions to work together to solve the problems of enterprises involved in law and litigation. Procuratorial organs in Wuhan, Yichang, Xianning and other places have strengthened normalized contact with the Federation of Industry and Commerce, promptly understanding the legal needs of private enterprises, and continuously improving the accuracy of procuratorial services.
Protect the confidence of enterprise development
"Thanks to the substantive resolution of administrative disputes carried out by the procuratorate, our company was able to get out of trouble and successfully apply for a business loan of 2 million yuan. Later, we plan to open another production line to further expand the production scale. On June 19, when the prosecutor of the Xiangzhou District Procuratorate of Xiangyang City visited a food processing factory in the jurisdiction, its person in charge Zhang said with confidence.
The development of the enterprise is booming, but for the person in charge of the enterprise, this change is really not easy to come by.
In 2016, the food company was fined 150,000 yuan for failing to report to the environmental impact assessment and approval department for approval of the noodle production and construction project in accordance with the law. For failing to pay the fine in time, the environmental protection department applied to the court to enforce a fine of 150,000 yuan and a late fee of more than 150,000 yuan. At the time, the food company was in its infancy, short on funds and unable to pay fines and late fees. After that, the food company was included in the list of dishonest judgment debtors, and its legal representative was also taken to restrict consumption.
On January 24 this year, the food company applied to the Xiangzhou District Procuratorate for enforcement supervision.
After the court accepted the food company's application for supervision, the prosecutor who undertook the investigation visited and verified it several times and found that in order to avoid continuing to cause pollution to the environment, the company had actively taken remedial measures and invested more than 200,000 yuan to upgrade food processing and production equipment.
The procurator in charge believes that in combination with the investigation and verification, the food company complies with the provisions of Article 42 of the Administrative Coercion Law of the People's Republic of China, which stipulates that "if the parties take remedial measures, the additional fines or late fees may be reduced", and it is necessary to carry out administrative dispute resolution. On January 30 this year, the Xiangzhou District Procuratorate held a public hearing on the case.
"Late fees have exacerbated the survival difficulties of enterprises, and enterprises should be provided with multi-party support to help small and micro enterprises regain confidence in development." The people's supervisor who participated in the public hearing said. After discussion, the parties involved in the hearing agreed that the food company was in compliance with the provisions of the Administrative Coercion Law to reduce late fees. The administrative organ agreed to reduce the late fee of more than 150,000 yuan in the case, and the procuratorate recommended that the court resume the enforcement procedure.
Subsequently, the food company paid all the fines of 150,000 yuan and the enforcement fee at one time, and the eight-year enforcement case was closed, the company's legal representative was lifted from the consumption restriction measures, and the company also successfully won the payment.
"From years of lawsuits to regaining confidence, behind it is the responsibility and dedication of the Hubei procuratorate to protect the enterprise." Li Jing, deputy to the National People's Congress and secretary of the Party Committee of the No. 4 Middle School of Xiangyang City, Hubei Province, believes that the provincial procuratorate has continuously improved the "green channel" mechanism for handling cases involving market entities by carrying out high-quality and efficient resolution of contradictions and disputes involving market entities in cases of accusations and appeals involving market entities, and resolved conflicts and disputes involving market entities in accordance with the law with high quality and efficiency.
According to the data, since the Hubei procuratorate launched the special action of "procuratorial protection of enterprises", 7,522 cases involving market entities have been uniformly marked and quickly transferred. At the same time, the procuratorial organs are exploring the construction of a diversified lawyer file reading service system that combines online and offline, so that on-site file reading is "handled at one time", Internet case file reading is "handled in a timely manner", and case file reading in other places is "handled nearby", and 2,314 case files are read by lawyers representing lawyers in cases involving market entities in a timely manner. Since the beginning of this year, the province's first-instance public prosecution rate involving market entities has increased by 1.9% year-on-year.
Zha Mengda, chief prosecutor of the Maojian District Procuratorate of Shiyan City, visited the Dongfeng Commercial Vehicle Company employee model worker innovation studio, and Wang Jianqing (second from right), a representative of the National People's Congress, introduced the development of the enterprise to him.
Confidence is more precious than gold for business development. It is understood that in the small special project of "Special Legal Supervision of the Enforcement of Property Judgments Involving Market Entities", the Hubei procuratorate closely monitored the implementation of the property-related part of the criminal judgment of the crime of infringing on the interests of enterprises, and put forward 201 written corrective opinions, recovering 1.82 million yuan of economic losses for enterprises.
"It is not only the economic losses that are recovered, but also the confidence of market players in the business environment!" Fu Shengli, deputy to the National People's Congress and chief technician of electrical maintenance of Sinopec Jingmen Petrochemical Company, affirmed the achievements of the Hubei procuratorate in protecting enterprises. He noted that the provincial procuratorate has continuously improved the case handling mechanism, taking cases involving market entities as a key type of case for leaders to take the lead in handling cases, and giving full play to the exemplary and leading role of leading cadres in taking the lead in implementing the policy of safe business and benefiting enterprises. At the same time, for major, difficult, and complex cases involving market entities, strengthen the linkage between the upper and lower levels and the cooperation of departments, to ensure that the political, social, and legal effects of case handling are organically unified.
The Enshi Municipal Procuratorate held a public hearing on a public interest litigation case of infringement of the exclusive right to use the registered trademark "Enshi Yulu", and invited deputies to the National People's Congress, members of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, and people's supervisors to serve as hearing officers, and relevant administrative organs and relevant personnel of the Enshi Prefecture Tea Industry Association participated.
Case handling is the carrier, and governance is the goal. Since the launch of the "Procuratorate and Enterprise Protection" special action, procuratorial organs at all levels in Hubei have continuously promoted the governance of litigation sources, strengthened the interpretation of the law and reasoning through methods such as court leaders taking care of cases, bringing in third-party forces such as people's supervisors and lawyers to participate in mediation, and promoted the substantive resolution of 557 conflicts involving enterprises. In response to the problems discovered in the handling of cases involving shell companies, the Jingmen Municipal Procuratorate promptly issued procuratorial suggestions to the market supervision department to promote the city-wide special governance of shell companies. At present, 138 shell companies in the city have been subject to administrative penalties.
Protect the surging power of the market
A good market competition environment is the foundation for the development and growth of enterprises. In March this year, the Jiang'an District Procuratorate of Wuhan City, based on the characteristic brand of "Zhi'an Inspection", strengthened the comprehensive performance of intellectual property rights and handled the city's first civil litigation case attached to intellectual property criminal cases.
In this case, the two people bought and sold counterfeit Geely auto parts, which were seized on the spot by the public security organs and the Market Supervision and Administration Bureau. While handling the criminal case in accordance with the law, the prosecutor of the Jiang'an District Procuratorate communicated with the right holder and the infringer in a timely manner on the civil compensation part, put the mediation work in advance, and finally promoted the two parties to reach a civil mediation agreement, and the infringer compensated the right holder for the loss of 800,000 yuan and apologized to the right holder. Through the integrated, comprehensive and active performance of duties, the procuratorial organs not only allow the infringer to receive the criminal punishment they deserve, but also allow the infringed party to receive economic compensation in a timely manner.
Law enforcement and judicial fairness are inevitable requirements for a law-based business environment. In the special action of "procuratorial protection of enterprises", the Hubei procuratorial organs have focused on rectifying the problem of profit-seeking law enforcement, and have made it the focus of supervision to resolutely correct problems that seriously damage the credibility of law enforcement and justice, such as profit-seeking law enforcement and "hanging cases".
When handling the case of Zhai's suspected fraud, the Honghu City Procuratorate guided the public security organs to objectively and comprehensively investigate and collect evidence, confirmed that Zhai did not subjectively have the purpose of illegal possession, supervised the public security organs to withdraw the case, and helped Zhai's company get back on the right track.
Regarding the case of a company suspected of defrauding export tax rebates, the Suixian County Procuratorate found in the performance of its duties that the public security organs had filed and investigated the case in 2021, but it had not been transferred for review and prosecution for more than two years, and the case had not been investigated for a long time and the evidence of the crime was found insufficient. The procuratorial organs supervise the withdrawal of cases by the public security organs in accordance with the law, and earnestly let the enterprises lay down their burdens and move forward lightly. It is understood that since the launch of the special action of "procuratorial protection of enterprises", the Hubei procuratorate has supervised the filing and withdrawal of 330 cases involving market entities, and supervised the closure of 104 "pending cases" involving enterprises.
The Hubei procuratorate also pays attention to the coordinated performance of duties, and the provincial procuratorate and the provincial government have established a working mechanism of "government inspection linkage" to strengthen supervision over problems such as "small excessive punishments" and "improper punishments". The Yiling District Procuratorate of Yichang City actively carried out the substantive resolution of administrative disputes in handling enterprise-related cases, and facilitated the relevant functional departments to revoke the administrative penalty decision of a company in accordance with the law, alleviating the difficulties of the enterprise's operation and resolving the enterprise-related disputes that lasted for 8 years.
"Protecting" out of the surging power of the market is not only the "cellular joy" brought by case handling, but also the "overall pulse" brought by the continuous improvement of the long-term mechanism.
In the "Special Supervision of Case Filing and Investigation Activities of Cases Involving Market Entities", the Hubei Provincial Procuratorate and the Provincial Public Security Department jointly issued the "Notice on Strengthening Supervision, Restraint, Coordination and Cooperation in the Handling of Criminal Cases Involving Enterprises and Drugs". The procuratorial organs of the province supervised the filing and withdrawal of 163 cases involving market entities, cleaned up 91 "pending cases" involving enterprises, and submitted written corrective opinions on 506 cases of illegal investigation activities.
In deepening the compliance reform of enterprises involved in cases, the Hubei Provincial Procuratorate and the Provincial Federation of Industry and Commerce signed and issued the "Guidelines for Common Compliance Risks and Compliance Construction of Enterprises", and revised and improved the "Regulations for Handling Compliance Cases of Enterprises Involved in Cases". Five projects, including "Compliance Reform of Enterprises Involved in Cases" and "Special Supervision of False Litigation Involving Enterprises", were selected as the 2024 reform items for optimizing the business environment in Hubei Province, and more and more enterprises have benefited from the compliance reform.
The Jingzhou Municipal Procuratorate boldly explored the application of the compliance case-handling mechanism of enterprises involved in the case in the whole process of criminal proceedings, and handled the first case in Hubei Province in which corporate compliance was applied in the second-instance criminal trial stage, helping the enterprises involved in the case to optimize the corporate governance structure, improve the financial management system, and establish a compliance system through compliance reform, so as to better comply with the law and operate in compliance with the law.
In the "Supervision of Public Interest Litigation Involving Market Entities", the Hubei Provincial Procuratorate filed and handled 1,478 public interest litigation cases involving market entities in the fields of food and drug safety, anti-monopoly, etc., issued 590 procuratorial suggestions, and filed 14 lawsuits, effectively safeguarding the order of market competition.
Security is the foundation of prosperity. In the small special project of "actively performing duties in accordance with the law and escorting production safety", the Hubei Provincial Procuratorate intervened in the investigation stage of 31 cases endangering production safety and participated in the investigation of accidents 32 times, guiding the investigation organs to comprehensively standardize the collection of evidence. Up to now, in terms of punishing criminal offenses endangering production safety, the province's procuratorial organs have approved the arrest of 40 people, prosecuted 110 people, and supervised the public security organs to file 13 cases. In addition, the provincial procuratorate issued 24 procuratorial recommendations on social governance of production safety. After communication and consultation, procuratorial organs at all levels in Hubei Province and emergency management and other departments have established 13 mechanisms for connecting production safety cases to gather long-term and permanent efforts for production safety.
Xiong Yongjun, deputy to the National People's Congress, secretary of the Party branch and director of the village committee of Guanyin Village, Shili Sub-district Office, Guangshui City, Hubei Province, is very concerned about the use of digital technology to improve the effectiveness of "procuratorial protection enterprises".
He learned that the Wujiagang District Procuratorate of Yichang City used the data of the district court, the Human Resources and Social Security Bureau, and the trade union on the case of wage arrears of workers as a blueprint to analyze the problem of wage arrears in Wujiagang District, and carried out data collisions on the "Xiaobaogong" supervision platform, and supervised the illegal termination of the enforcement procedure by finding more than 20 pieces of seized property that were not disposed of in a timely manner, and the shareholders who did not have insufficient additional capital contributions were the persons subject to execution. "Iteratively upgrading supervision methods has become one of the 'cheats' for Hubei procuratorial organs to continuously improve the accuracy of enterprise protection." Xiong Yongjun said.
Thousands of sails race, inspection escort. Under the protection of the power of the rule of law, Jingchu's economy is pulsating, surging and powerful, and stable and far-reaching.
(Source: Procuratorate Daily· Voice Weekly Reporter: Liu Yiting)