□ Our reporter Chen Lei
□ Zhou Yubu, an intern of this newspaper
"Retire without 'break', take advantage of the convenient conditions formed by the original power or status to seek illegitimate benefits for others, and illegally accept money from others." Member of the party group, former member of the party group of the Fujian Provincial Grain Bureau and deputy director Huang Jinghe was expelled from the party.
A reporter from the "Rule of Law Daily" reviewed the information reported in the investigation and investigation column of the website of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and the State Supervision Commission and found that since the beginning of this year, six leading cadres have been named to retire without "resting".
In May of this year, the General Office of the CPC Central Committee issued the "Opinions on Strengthening the Party Construction of Retired Cadres in the New Era" (hereinafter referred to as the "Opinions"), which made it clear that retired cadres and Party members, especially those who have held leadership positions, must strictly abide by the relevant disciplinary rules. , shall not use the original power or position influence to seek benefits for themselves and others.
Experts interviewed by the reporter believe that an important reason for individual leading cadres to retire without "retiring" to engage in corruption is that they think that they can break away from the constraints of rules and disciplines after retirement, but in fact, leading cadres have a retirement date for their work. There is no time left for oversight and management.
The supervision and management of retired leading cadres should be strengthened, and the red lines of discipline and law should be drawn around the integrity risk points of retired leading cadres. At the same time, the system of preventing conflicts of interest of leading cadres should be improved, so that leading cadres will not dare, cannot, or do not want to be corrupt after retirement.
Retire without "break" to engage in corruption
The same can not escape the disciplinary punishment
Wang Fuyou, a native of Dongliao, Jilin Province, served as Secretary of the Dongfeng County Party Committee in Jilin Province and Deputy Director of the Standing Committee of the Liaoyuan Municipal People's Congress.
Retired in May 2014 and sacked in September 2021.
According to the information released on the website of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and State Supervision Commission in July this year, Wang Fuyou, as a leading cadre of party members, lost his ideals and beliefs, betrayed his original mission, used his power to seek personal gain, and did not quit. Suspected of a crime, and did not restrain or withdraw after the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the nature is serious and the impact is bad, and should be dealt with seriously.
At the end of July, under the jurisdiction designated by the Jilin Provincial People's Procuratorate, Wang Fu was suspected of taking bribes and using his influence to accept bribes, and the Tonghua City People's Procuratorate prosecuted according to law.
According to the information reported on the website of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and the State Supervision Commission, the reporter found that the term "retirement" appeared in the notification to Cai Esheng, the former vice chairman of the China Banking Regulatory Commission.
Cai Esheng was born in Hubei in 1951. After working, he mainly worked in the People's Bank of China. He served as the director of the Financial Supervision Department of the People's Bank of China, assistant to the governor of the People's Bank of China, member of the party committee and president and secretary of the party committee of the Shanghai branch.
He later retired as the former vice-chairman of the China Banking Regulatory Commission.
In July 2021, Cai Esheng was examined and investigated, and it has been many years since his retirement.
The report on January 24 this year stated that Cai Esheng was undisciplined, retiring without "resting", committing crimes against the wind, using the convenience and influence of his position to make profits for others in financing loans, project contracting, job promotion, etc., and illegally accepting huge amounts of money property.
According to the information in the report, it can be seen that retirement without "break" describes that after the retirement of leading cadres, they still use their influence when they are on the job to commit corruption.
On January 26 this year, Liu Jifu, the former secretary of the party group and director of the Jiangxi Provincial Department of Land and Resources, was expelled from the party for serious violations of discipline and law.
The report stated that he had no reverence, retire without "rest", racked his brains to accumulate money, used the influence of his former position to openly engage in paid activities, wandered between politics and business as an "old secretary" and "old director", and wanted to interfere in the organization of personnel affairs. , engineering projects, mineral resources, seriously corrupt the party's image.
Deng Jinting, deputy director of the Anti-Corruption and Rule of Law Research Center at Renmin University of China, said that after retiring, taking advantage of his position to influence staff in other countries, seek benefits for others, and illegally accept property, is suspected of using influence to accept bribes.
This crime was uncommon before, giving people the illusion of "safe landing" after retirement.
"Retire without 'rest' if not severely punished, on the one hand, this corruption will appear to have only benefits without risks, and it will easily spread; on the other hand, it will also affect the enthusiasm of staff in other countries, and even affect the selection of successors. appointment."
"After a leading cadre retires, although he has left the leadership position and has no power, if he uses his previous power and influence to seek benefits and accept property for others, it is actually no different from the corruption when he was in office, and must be strictly dealt with. investigation." said Ren Jianming, director of the Integrity Research and Education Center of Beihang University.
According to Peng Xinlin, a professor at the Law School of Beijing Normal University, the above case shows that retirement is not a "talisman" for corruption, nor a "separation wall" for supervision.
Adhere to the anti-corruption, no forbidden area, full coverage and zero tolerance is by no means empty words. Regardless of whether they are in office or retired, leading cadres who are suspected of corruption cannot escape discipline and law.
Hidden and dangerous
Strengthen supervision and build firewalls
Before the use of the expression "retirement without "retirement" in the notification on the website of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and State Supervision Commission, the issue of "retirement without "retirement" has been concerned by the Commission for Discipline Inspection and Supervision, and has been specifically elaborated in the relevant notification.
For example, Wang Fuyu, former secretary and chairman of the CPPCC Party Committee of Guizhou Province, mentioned in the anti-corruption feature film "Zero Tolerance" broadcast at the beginning of this year that Wang Fuyu retired in 2018 and used his influence to receive property equivalent to more than 17.35 million yuan after resigning from 2019 to 2020.
"(Wang Fuyu) was more aggressive after retirement. He didn't care, and he made a lot of transfers. In the past, he used cash, so he had to hide. After retirement, direct transfers came. After retirement, he felt out of the officialdom. , he may have nothing to do with him." His brother said in front of the camera.
On January 17 this year, the Tianjin No. 1 Intermediate People's Court publicly sentenced Wang Fuyu to the death penalty with a two-year reprieve in the case of taking bribes and using his influence to accept bribes.
After trial, the court found out that Wang Fuyu illegally received property directly or through others, amounting to more than 434 million yuan.
The reporter sorted out and found that individual leading cadres have different performances when they retire and do not "retire".
For example, Su Zequn, former member of the Standing Committee of the Guangzhou Municipal Party Committee of Guangdong Province and former executive deputy mayor of the municipal government, accepted other people’s property in the name of providing consulting services after retirement; Zhu Jianji, former member of the party group and deputy director of the Anhui Provincial Department of Science and Technology, violated regulations after retirement and engaged in business related to the jurisdiction of his original position Jia Tanghong, the former director of the Jinan Municipal Health and Family Planning Commission, Shandong Province, was greedy for power, and after retirement, he intervened arbitrarily, intervening in medical and health law enforcement and engineering projects.
Experts believe that the harm of corruption in retirement without "break" is very great.
In Ren Jianming's view, the harm of retiring without "retiring" is no less than the corruption of power when officials are in office, including a series of problems such as marketization of power and transfer of interests, which damage the image of the party and the credibility of the government.
"Leading cadres who retire without 'resting' to engage in corruption not only seriously erode the party's physical health and corrupt the party's political ecology, but also the corruption that exerts 'residual heat' after retirement is more insidious, has a longer incubation period, and is more harmful , posed new challenges to the fight against corruption." Peng Xinlin believes.
He analyzed that the important reason for individual leading cadres who retire and do not "retire" is that they think that "if you retire, you can retire as soon as you retire." Safe box”, the requirements for oneself are reduced, and there is no scruples in illegally accumulating money.
"As everyone knows, no matter whether you are in office or retired, as long as there is corrupt behavior that uses power for personal gain, it is impossible to be safe, because anti-corruption is always on the way."
According to Ren Jianming's observation, retirement without "break" is actually a manifestation of the conflict between the personal interests of leading cadres and public responsibility, and it is also a common problem faced by all countries in the world, because leading cadres will form a certain influence in some key positions. This kind of influence does not disappear suddenly when leading cadres leave their posts, and it will last for a certain period of time.
Ren Jianming said that in order to prevent such conflicts of interest, many countries have formulated corresponding regulations to build a "firewall", and our country has also stipulated the "three-year, two-forbidden" clause in the Civil Servant Law, that is, "a civil servant who resigns from public office or retires, Civil servants who were former leaders of the department or in leadership positions at or above the county level shall not be employed in enterprises or other for-profit organizations directly related to their original work within three years of their resignation and other civil servants within two years of their resignation, and shall not engage in jobs directly related to their original work. for-profit activities”.
"The existence of the corruption phenomenon of retire without 'rest' shows that my country's current system of preventing conflicts of interest still needs to be improved, and the current regulations such as the "Regulations on Leading Cadres Reporting Personal Relevant Matters" should be further implemented, and effective supervision of retirees should be strengthened. " Ren Jianming said.
Negative list draws red lines
Avoidance period for key positions
The "Opinions" issued in May this year stated that retired cadres and party members, especially those who have held leadership positions, should strictly abide by relevant discipline and rules, and should not use their original power or position to seek benefits for themselves and others.
Deng Jinting believes that strengthening the crackdown on corruption of retired cadres is the focus of the "Opinions", and it also reflects that my country's anti-corruption is further weaving a secret legal network and continuing to implement the zero-tolerance strategy of full coverage without restricted areas.
Peng Xinlin agrees with this. He believes that the issue of "retirement" in practice has become an important background for the introduction of the "Opinions", and the party is strictly governed in an all-round way, and retired party members are no exception.
The "Opinions" will help to strengthen the party building work and daily management of retired cadres and party members, and will help guide them to strictly abide by the rules and regulations, restrain their desires, keep the bottom line, and stay away from the red line.
At the same time, experts pointed out that the "Opinions" are more principled, and in the future, it is necessary to introduce more operable implementation rules and improve relevant systems to prevent the occurrence of corruption.
Peng Xinlin said that the work of leading cadres has a day to retire, but there is no time to leave blank for their supervision and management.
The "Opinions" should be taken as an opportunity to promote the implementation of the "Opinions" and strengthen the supervision and management of retired party members and cadres.
Disciplinary inspection and supervision organs can focus on the integrity risk points of retired cadres, sort out the prone and frequent problems that need to be focused on prevention, make a negative list, and draw red lines for discipline and law, so as to provide guidance for strengthening the supervision of retired cadres.
Peng Xinlin suggested to strictly implement the Civil Servant Law and relevant intra-Party regulations on the regulation of the party and government leading cadres in terms of part-time jobs (employment) and remuneration for part-time jobs in enterprises, and improve the institutional mechanisms for retired cadres who dare not, cannot, and do not want to be corrupt. , so that retired cadres dare not, cannot, and are unwilling to go to the "revolving door" of politics and business, so as to prevent conflicts of interest and transfer of interests.
"In addition, it is also necessary to strengthen the regular ideological and political work of retired cadres, and continue to strengthen warning education and deterrence to ensure that they will not leave the party and retire, and the 'residual heat' will be on the right track." Peng Xinlin said.
Ren Jianming believes that, first of all, it is necessary to pay attention to the power allocation and supervision of leading cadres when they are in office.
From the perspective of power allocation, leading cadres should not be corrupt, and from the perspective of power supervision, leading cadres should not dare to be corrupt. "Leading cadres should not abuse their power when they are in office, and they will not have the opportunity to seek illegal benefits after retirement."
"Improve the 'three years, two prohibitions' clause. For leading cadres, especially leading cadres in key positions, a longer avoidance period should be set, especially for key positions with high positions, such as top leaders and department heads, You can even consider avoiding it for life." Ren Jianming suggested.