Rectify the problem of related party transactions, shadow companies, and other enterprises relying on enterprises to promote the strengthening of supervision of state-owned assets
Deepen corruption control in the field of state-owned enterprises
Reporter Chai Yaxin
Xu Heyi, former Party Secretary and Chairman of BAIC Motor Group Co., Ltd., was examined and investigated; Xing Lianjun, deputy general manager of Shanxi Cultural Tourism Investment Holding Group Co., Ltd., was examined and investigated... Recently, discipline inspection and supervision organs in various places have investigated and dealt with a number of leading cadres of state-owned enterprises, and Sichuan and other places have publicly exposed typical cases of violations of discipline and law in the field of state-owned enterprises, releasing a strong signal to continue to rectify corruption in state-owned enterprises.
The Second Plenary Session of the 20th Central Commission for Discipline Inspection stressed the need to highlight key areas and deepen the rectification of corruption in finance, state-owned enterprises, political and legal areas where power is concentrated, capital intensive, resource-rich fields, and grain purchase and sales. What are the typical manifestations of the loss of state-owned assets caused by the leading cadres of state-owned enterprises relying on enterprises to eat enterprises? What shortcomings have been exposed? How to promote the "three non-corruption" as a whole and firmly guard against the loss of state-owned assets? The reporter conducted an interview on this.
Related party transactions, rent-seeking, arbitrage and embezzlement... Individual leading cadres of state-owned enterprises have sacrificed the interests of enterprises and state-owned assets in exchange for personal gains
Recently, Zhao Weiguo, former chairman of Unigroup Co., Ltd., was transferred to the procuratorate for examination and prosecution on suspicion of job-related crimes. The circular mentioned that Zhao Weiguo, as a manager of a state-owned enterprise, regarded the state-owned enterprises under his management as private territory, planned to seize state-owned assets, illegally entrusted the profitable business of his unit to relatives and friends for operation, purchased goods from the units operated and managed by relatives and friends at prices significantly higher than the market, and instructed the directors of listed companies to carry out acts that harmed the interests of listed companies, causing particularly heavy losses to the interests of the state.
"Looking at the cases in which leading cadres of state-owned enterprises rely on enterprises to eat enterprises, the consequences are often damage to the interests of enterprises and loss of state-owned assets." Chen Qinglu, a cadre in the case trial room of the Jiulongpo District Commission for Discipline Inspection and Supervision in Chongqing, told reporters that they either use the scarce resources and profit opportunities of enterprises as chips in exchange for "thank you fees", or put public funds into personal pockets by means of fraud, or "give favors" to enterprises' assets and funds.
Related party transactions, eating and grabbing the interests of state-owned enterprises. Some leading cadres of enterprises rely on the production, supply, and marketing links of state-owned enterprises to obtain "special care" and "fixed-point transportation" from state-owned enterprises. They either condone relatives, friends, and certain related persons to illegally contract profit-making businesses to earn huge profits, or they themselves engaged in business and run enterprises in violation of laws and regulations, partnered with others to set up enterprises, and encroached on the interests of state-owned enterprises by raising purchase prices, buying low and selling high to earn the difference. For example, Zhang Honglin, former general manager of China Resources Shanxi Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., established three "vest" companies as drug suppliers. After purchasing a large number of low-priced drugs through a medicinal materials company, he then sold them to CR Shanxi Medicine at a high price in the name of the "vest" company, earning a high price difference.
Set up rent-seeking, sit on the ground and collect "road money". Some use the right to examine and approve resources and the right to purchase materials to artificially restrict normal business activities and accept bribes; some form circles with unscrupulous businessmen to "encircle" enterprises, and some use brokers to sell state-owned assets at a low price to get kickbacks. For example, Liu Xingwei, former general manager of Guodian Chengdu Jintang Power Generation Co., Ltd., grasped the two businesses of buying coal and selling coal ash, and gave care to specific enterprises in terms of contracting business, increasing quantity, guaranteeing prices, and allocating coal payments, forming a corrupt pattern of collecting benefit fees by ton for a long time.
State-owned enterprises are capital-intensive, resource-rich, and asset-aggregated, and once supervision is a mere formality, the problem of rent-seeking is very easy to breed. "Rent-seeking is mostly accompanied by the production and operation activities of enterprises, which is the cause of economic losses of enterprises and a stumbling block to high-quality development." Gao Yuzhi, director of the regulation research office of the Lianyungang City Commission for Discipline Inspection and Supervision in Jiangsu Province, said that the reason for the high operating costs of some state-owned enterprises is due to problems like Liu Xingwei.
Misappropriation and misappropriation of enterprises as "cash machines". With the improvement of the supervision and management system of state-owned assets, the wide application of financial integration and information systems, the quality and efficiency of capital supervision of state-owned enterprises have been continuously improved, but there are still people who are lucky and violate discipline. Some collude internally and externally to "cheat money" and use state-owned funds for others to use, some use state-owned funds by means of keeping them, and set up "small treasuries" privately and regard state-owned funds as personal welfare.
"Arbitrage and misappropriation of state-owned funds is essentially a kind of self-theft, which constitutes crimes such as embezzlement of duty, embezzlement, embezzlement, and private division of state-owned assets, depending on the circumstances." Gao Yuzhi said.
Focus on new trends in invisible mutations and focus on cutting off hidden interest chains
The concentration of the fields and links of the case is the characteristic of the problem of loss of state-owned assets caused by relying on enterprises to eat enterprises. Chen Qinglu told reporters that judging from the inspection and inspection and the investigation and handling of cases by discipline inspection and supervision organs, there are high incidence of problems in key links such as financial management, capital operation, project approval, restructuring and reorganization, procurement and marketing, and property rights transactions in key areas such as project construction, mixed reform of state-owned enterprises, state-owned assets collection and storage, and overseas investment.
Some leading cadres of state-owned enterprises have taken advantage of their operational characteristics to put on vests for illegal and criminal acts with seemingly normal and compliant business procedures, and their methods have been iteratively updated, making it more difficult to investigate and handle cases.
In the case of Zhou Hongmei, former chairman of Chongqing Rongqiao Financing Guarantee Co., Ltd., who seriously violated discipline and law, Zhou Hongmei knew that the amount of guaranteed loans provided to an enterprise could not exceed 15% of the company's net assets in that year, so in order to avoid supervision, she adopted methods such as "turning the whole into zero" and illegally provided a guaranteed loan of 2 million yuan for an enterprise, burying the huge hidden danger of the loss of state-owned assets.
"Zhou Hongmei's case is a typical use of professional means to evade supervision." Chen Qinglu said that some practitioners have helped enterprises or individuals improperly profit through illegal lending, illegal guarantees, and conveying benefits through financial derivatives transactions, and have used their expertise in the financial field to create multiple disguises for violations of discipline and law.
Some people take advantage of enterprise restructuring, investment cooperation, and the development of new economic formats to "hide money" and adopt various methods to conceal, transfer, and embezzle state-owned assets, and the means are even more hidden and complicated.
"Some underestimate assets, conceal creditors' rights or create fictitious debts in the course of enterprise restructuring, and deliberately conceal enterprise assets; Some take out the business in the field of insufficient competition of the enterprise to carry out mixed reform, transfer advantageous resources and operating profits to specific enterprises, and engage in profit transmission; Some 'just mix and ignore', and after the mixed reform, form 'national skin and people's bones'. Acting Changliang, deputy director of the Fourth Discipline Inspection and Supervision Office of the Discipline Inspection Commission of Jiande City, Zhejiang Province, said.
The establishment of "shadow companies" and "shadow shareholders" is also a new trend of invisible mutation by relying on the means of enterprises eating enterprises. Dai Changliang introduced that such problems are usually manifested as internal and external collusion, deception and concealment, forming a hidden and stable interest chain, and the amount involved is generally large, seriously infringing on the interests of enterprises and destroying the political ecology of enterprises.
Dereliction of duty and bribery are intertwined, and corruption is hidden behind it
The dereliction of duty and abuse of power by leading cadres of state-owned enterprises, causing serious losses to the interests of enterprises or the state, is also an act of eating away at state-owned assets.
Site visit is an important link before enterprise cooperation. However, when leading the team to visit Hongcheng Holding Group Co., Ltd. and China Enterprise Joint Financing Guarantee Co., Ltd., Chen Feng, former deputy general manager of Fujian Longyan Transportation Development Group and former chairman of Longwu Trading Co., Ltd., went headlong into the eating, drinking and fun tour arranged by the enterprise, and forgot the purpose of the inspection in the interlacing of funds.
After the inspection, Chen Feng organized the staff to hastily compile the project proposal. Although the financial department clearly pointed out at that time that the annual audit report provided by Hongcheng Company was untrue and there were problems such as inflated profits, Chen Feng still went his own way. According to the case-handling personnel, Chen Feng regarded state-owned assets as personal territory, seriously violated the collective decision-making system of the "three major issues", and signed a trade contract on his own without reporting to the superior group.
The project cooperation was launched, and Longwu Company paid tens of millions of yuan to Hongcheng Company in just a few months. After that, Chen Feng did not follow up and control, did not verify the flow of trade goods, and even when he found that China Enterprise United Finance Guarantee Co., Ltd. was listed by the court as a dishonest executor and there was a major risk of substitution, he still did not take measures, but continued to invest funds, resulting in the continuous expansion of the company's losses.
Dereliction of duty goes hand in hand with bribery. The case-handling personnel told reporters that Zhang, the former deputy general manager of Hongcheng Holding Group Co., Ltd., had given Chen Feng millions of yuan in the name of business kickbacks.
When the Chenggong District Commission for Discipline Inspection and Supervision of Kunming City, Yunnan Province combed through the cases of violations of discipline and law in the field of state-owned enterprises since 2018, it found that the leading cadres of state-owned enterprises have greater power to manage and dispose of funds, abuse of power has caused serious losses of state-owned assets, and economic cases are frequent. Judging from the performance situation, some people have a distorted view of performance, talking about scale rather than efficiency, assets rather than liabilities, and arbitrarily disposing of state-owned assets; Some arbitrarily make arbitrary claims, violating laws and regulations and the "triple one" decision-making process, leaving a mess; Some illegally guarantee, mortgage, pledge, or illegally use enterprise funds to buy and sell futures, stocks, etc., causing serious losses or risks to the enterprise; Some improperly performed their duties in the restructuring of enterprises, and improperly assessed and disposed of enterprise creditors' rights, debts, assets, etc.; Some have left their posts without permission, neglected their duties and neglected management, and allowed the loss of state-owned assets, and so on.
"The fundamental reason for this lies in the fact that the 'field of responsibility' of party building has been abandoned, and the 'one post and two responsibilities' have been sidelined, and the work of improving party style and clean government has not been studied and deployed and implemented in conjunction with professional work." Relevant responsible comrades of the Chenggong District Commission for Discipline Inspection and Supervision said that some state-owned enterprises are "number one" in the party's concept of being indifferent; they replace party committee decision-making with leading group meetings and general managers' office meetings on major matters; they are merely formalities in party building and study; some even do not hold party committees and branch meetings for a long time; and the management of grassroots party organizations is loose, resulting in the failure of the responsibility of comprehensively and strictly administering the main body of the party.
The imperfect restraint mechanism and the virtual internal and external supervision are also important reasons for the occurrence of corruption and the increase of operational risks in state-owned enterprises.
"Some state-owned enterprises have loopholes in the construction of institutional systems, and the system of supervision and restraint of various key personnel and key positions is not perfect or has been vacated in practice." Chen Qinglu said that in particular, the "number one" who holds the power of enterprise capital, resources and asset management, once supervision is absent, it is very easy to abuse power arbitrarily, resulting in political ecological pollution of enterprises and loss of state-owned assets.
Promote the integration of not daring to be corrupt, not being corrupt, and not wanting to be corrupt, and escorting the security of state-owned assets
State-owned assets and resources are hard-won and are the common wealth of the people of the whole country, and must not become "Tang monk meat" that can be slaughtered by others. Discipline inspection and supervision organs have promoted as a whole that they do not dare to be corrupt, cannot be corrupted, and do not want to be corrupt, and resolutely cut off the "black hands" that extend to state-owned assets.
This year, the Hunan Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection and Supervision formulated the "Work Plan for Carrying out Special Rectification of the Problem of Relying on Enterprises to Eat Enterprises in Provincial-Managed Enterprises", which will focus on rectifying conspicuous problems such as related party transactions, rent-seeking, arbitrage and embezzlement, and "plucking goose feathers", and strictly investigate new types of corruption and hidden corruption such as "shadow shareholders", "shadow companies" and "revolving doors of government and businessmen".
Not only Hunan, but many places have intensified investigation and punishment, forming a strong deterrent to punish enterprises that rely on enterprises to eat, and escorting the safety of state-owned assets.
"We have strengthened the analysis and judgment of the political ecology of state-owned enterprises, focused on key areas and key links, continued to deepen the special action of supervision and enforcement of state-owned enterprises, and seriously investigated and dealt with violations of discipline and law such as embezzlement, embezzlement, and squandering of state-owned assets." Zhang Xueying, deputy secretary of the Jiulongpo District Discipline Inspection Commission and deputy director of the Supervision Committee, said.
Taking cases as a lesson and promoting reform with cases, discipline inspection and supervision suggestions are put forward around improving state-owned asset supervision, promoting corporate governance, and strengthening internal management. In response to the serious violation of discipline and law by Shen Junyu, former chairman and general manager of Hangzhou Eastern Urban Construction Investment Group Co., Ltd., the Supervision Committee of the Qiantang District Commission for Discipline Inspection of Hangzhou City, Zhejiang Province formulated and issued a supervision proposal, urging the units involved in the case and the state-owned enterprises under the district to carry out special inspections of rules of procedure and decision-making procedures, and special audits for independent bidding, and at the same time carried out special governance of prominent problems in the field of state-owned enterprises in the region, and promoted the formulation and improvement of more than 60 systems such as project bidding management measures, internal audit management measures, and clean government talk management measures for district-owned state-owned enterprises.
Categorized policies, targeted governance, and improve the supervision and restraint mechanism for the operation of power. In view of the loss of state-owned assets caused by the violation of the rules and blind decision-making of the "number one" of state-owned enterprises, the Lianyungang Municipal Commission for Discipline Inspection and Supervision deeply analyzed the main manifestations and root causes of decision-making risks, and subdivided the three types of "blind decision-making", "false decision-making" and "ultra-vires decision-making". Among them, in response to the use of methods such as circulation, countersignature, oral consultation, etc. instead of formal procedures and false decision-making, urge the unit responsible for the case to refine the links of investigation and research, demonstration and evaluation, and standardized voting before, during, and after the meeting, and investigate the responsibility of those who fail to perform collective decision-making procedures.
Treat both the symptoms and the root causes, and tighten the institutional cage of risk prevention and control. The Discipline Inspection Commission of Changshu Municipality, Jiangsu Province, the Audit Bureau and other units have coordinated and linked to promote the formulation and improvement of a number of systems and mechanisms around financing guarantees, capital lending, foreign investment, etc., such as promoting Changshu Development Investment Co., Ltd. to formulate the "Administrative Measures for the Review of Financing Guarantees and Capital Lending of Subsidiaries" and "External Expert Review System".
After investigating and dealing with Chai Yu, former secretary of the party committee and chairman of Ya'an Development and Investment Co., Ltd., and five other "number one leaders" of state-owned enterprises, the Discipline Inspection Commission of Ya'an City, Sichuan Province, held 5 warning education meetings throughout the city, and organized more than 29,1300 people to watch the warning education special film "The Eclipse of State-owned Enterprises" and study warning education books.
Strengthen the cultivation of the foundation, strengthen the construction of discipline, and continue to enhance the ideological consciousness of not wanting to be corrupt. "We adhere to the combination of positive guidance and negative deterrence, carry out warning education, reflection and rectification education, and education on ideals and beliefs, and enhance the resistance and immunity of leading cadres of state-owned enterprises to resist corruption and prevent degeneration." Relevant responsible comrades of the Ya'an City Commission for Discipline Inspection and Supervision said. (China Discipline Inspection and Supervision News)