Chapter 43 Chapter 41: Bus reform, where is the road

Bus reform is a matter of the use of public finances. Only by widely listening to public opinion can the system and norms designed in this way satisfy the public. "Every morning at 5:20, I set off from home on time to the leader's residence near the East Third Ring Road. I first sent the leader's daughter to the school in Xicheng District, and then rushed back to pick up the leader and go to work in Dongcheng District." "In the afternoon, I have to make a good time to pick up the leader's daughter home first, and pick up the leader from get off work later." Lao Zhang, who lives in Niujie, Xuanwu District, Beijing, is a driver of a central government agency. He complained to the reporter. , "This is my daily routine work, and it is often eight or nine o'clock at night when I get home. Only on weekends when the leader drives the car back for his own use can I relax."

In many places in our country, there are a lot of private use of public vehicles like this. In addition, the number of vehicles exceeds the standard, and the maintenance costs are expensive, making public vehicles one of the largest public consumption expenditures in our country. It is understood that this kind of corruption has already aroused public dissatisfaction, and there are endless plans for bus reforms in various places. However, after various pilot projects, they have not been fully recognized by the public, and finally fell silent. Relevant experts suggested that the bus reform is a matter of the use of public finances, and public opinion should be widely listened to.Relevant departments should determine the overall direction and principles of the national bus reform as soon as possible, extensively solicit opinions from the public, use a rigid system to promote bus reform, and fundamentally change the state of flooding and disorder.

Although it is only 500 meters away from the school, Uncle Li, who lives in Dengshikou, Dongcheng District, Beijing, insists on taking his granddaughter to and from a nearby key middle school every morning and evening. "There are too many cars to pick up and drop off students at the school gate, which is not safe." Uncle Li said that many of these cars have special agency logos or unit names printed on them. "There are many police cars, road administration, industrial and commercial vehicles, and inspection vehicles among these public vehicles." Uncle Li said with emotion, "Now, the cars of some units are almost becoming private cars."

In addition to schools, tourist attractions and the gates of major hotels are also gathering places for private buses.Xiao Zhou is a waiter at a big hotel in Beijing, and is mainly responsible for guiding guests to parking spaces.He told the reporter: "There are often people who drive a bus to spend here. Several times, I found that when someone stopped the car, they quietly changed to another license plate, and changed it back when they left." The reporter's investigation found that some buses take kickbacks and earn price differences in the maintenance process, which also exists to varying degrees in some places. "When there is something wrong with the bus, many drivers like to go to some individual maintenance points for repairs." A driver from a public institution in Beijing told reporters, "These bosses are more flexible in their business."

Some experts preliminarily estimated that the annual operating cost of an official car (including the driver's salary and benefits) is more than 60,000 yuan, and some even exceed 100,000 yuan. Adding the price of the vehicle, the annual cost of a public car is staggering. Speechless. It is understood that my country's party and government agencies have always had clear regulations on vehicle equipment.However, "Although the investigation of over-standard car purchases has been very strict in recent years, it is very common for some people to cheat, buy over-standard cars, and use power to over-use cars, and it becomes more and more prominent at the grassroots level." Associate Professor Yang Zhonghong of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Beijing Institute of Petrochemical Technology said, "Because It is a special car, so private use is often left unattended, and even if there are systems and regulations for the management of public cars, they are often a mere formality and are not strictly enforced.”

According to statistics, by the late 1990s, there were about 3.5 million public vehicles in my country, and the annual consumption of about 300 billion yuan, including the drivers. In 2004, the scale of Chinese government procurement reached 220 billion yuan, of which the amount of automobile procurement was as high as 50 billion yuan.Nevertheless, the quantity of automobiles purchased by local governments is increasing at a rate of 20% every year, and the national finances are overwhelmed. "From 1986 to 2005, the annual administrative expenses borne by my country's per capita increased by 23 times, while the GDP increased by 14.6 times during the same period." Feng Peien, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, used data to show that the rapid growth of government administrative expenses is indeed worrying," Among them, the waste of official vehicles is the most serious. At present, only about 1/3 of official vehicles in my country are actually used for official business."

In recent years, "wheel corruption" has intensified, causing strong public dissatisfaction.For this reason, starting from the end of the 1990s, various places began a difficult and faltering car improvement process—— In 1997, Guangdong Province launched the pilot reform of public vehicles in my country. In September 1998, the State Restructuring Commission launched some central agencies to carry out pilot vehicle reforms. At the same time, some areas in Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Beijing, Hunan, Chongqing and other provinces and cities also started pilot programs for vehicle reforms. In December 2004, the pilot work of the reform of official vehicles in Beijing quietly started in Haidian, Fangshan, Pinggu and other districts and counties...

So far, there are basically three modes of bus reform across the country: one is to strengthen the management mode, and each unit continues to retain the bus, cancel the "leader's special car", and improve and strictly implement various rules and regulations for the use and management of bus; the second is the monetization mode The third is the semi-monetary model, where public buses are reserved and managed by the government’s administrative and logistics departments, and bus cards are issued to staff at all levels, and paid use of public vehicles is implemented, and annual settlement is made.

It is understood that most places have chosen a one-step "monetization" model.Due to the different levels of economic development and per capita income in different regions, the subsidy standard also ranges from 300 yuan to 2,000 yuan.According to reports, the reform of official vehicles in Liulihe Town, Fangshan District, Beijing, issued car subsidies to cadres in six grades, including 1,800 yuan per person per month for sub-department-level cadres, 1,300 yuan per person per month for non-substantial department-level cadres, and 1,300 yuan per person per month for section chiefs. 500 yuan per person per month, 200 yuan per person per month for section staff and clerks, etc. In May 2005, Kunming’s car reform plan was: abolish public buses, and distribute car reform subsidies according to administrative levels. The subsidy standards are: monthly subsidy of 1,800 yuan for the deputy department, 1,500 yuan for the department, 1,300 yuan for the deputy department, and 1,000 yuan for the department. 800 yuan for sub-department, 500 yuan for section staff...

In order to promote the reform of public vehicles in various places, the central government has also issued some documents and regulations. In February 2003, the work report of the Second Plenary Session of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection clearly stated: "Encourage and support qualified regions and units to actively and steadily carry out the reform of official reception, official vehicles, and civil servant welfare systems." In October 2003, the 16th Party Committee The Third Plenary Session of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China formally put forward the requirements for reforming the consumption of leading cadres, and included the reform of public vehicles.

According to the reporter's investigation, the bus reform carried out across the country not only did not reduce public opinion, but intensified it. "The main reason is that most of the public vehicles in various places adopt the reform method of 'selling public vehicles and issuing subsidies', which is the so-called 'monetization reform'." Yang Zhonghong believes that "although this model is in line with the reform direction of monetization, socialization and marketization , took care of the vital interests of officials at different levels, but brought many new problems and even new corruption." "The advantage of monetization is to turn the bus fee into personal income, stimulate the individual saving mechanism, and thus control the growth of the bus fee as a whole." Professor Mao Shoulong from the Department of Administration and Management of Renmin University of China analyzed it this way, "but due to the amount of bus consumption Huge, according to this amount of public car consumption into personal subsidies, it is equivalent to increasing the income of relevant personnel by hundreds or even thousands of yuan per month. If this is not matched with the reform of the civil servant salary system, it will easily cause further dissatisfaction. So it’s hard to last.” "Under the original bus management system, the frequency of use of cars by personnel in different positions varies greatly. However, according to the administrative level, one size fits all, and the monetization of subsidies is suspected of raising wages in disguise. On the other hand, monetization is linked to official positions. It bears the trace of 'official standard', which is not conducive to mobilizing the enthusiasm of civil servants." A doctoral student at the School of Political Science and International Relations of Beijing Normal University agreed. "The buses of our unit are sold to the leaders and employees of the unit at a very low price, resulting in a large loss of state-owned assets, and even concealing some room for fraudulent operations. This is not an isolated phenomenon, and it is also common in other places." A friend of the reporter who has been driving for leaders at the grassroots level for many years said, "The car modification has become an opportunity for some people to gain personal gain." In the interviews, most interviewees believed that the public bus reform was "a lot of noise but little rain" because the formulation and implementation of such "plans" were in the hands of officials at all levels, and the purpose was to ensure the vested interests of the civil servants The public is excluded from decision-making, and it is difficult to obtain public support in the end. Relevant experts believe that to solve the problem of bus reform, it is necessary to make full use of the method of public hearings, invite stakeholders to discuss and determine the reform plan with the public, and give all relevant groups, especially the public, a full opportunity to speak. "The reform of public vehicles needs to be strongly promoted by national policies. It is necessary for relevant departments to formulate detailed guidance on public vehicle reform as soon as possible, so as to unify the pace of public vehicle reform on a larger scale and promote public vehicle reform in a standardized way." Li Chengyan believes that "we must use currency carefully. We can explore more effective means. Because the bus reform is ultimately a matter of the use of public finances, which is related to the vital interests of the people, it is natural to listen to public opinion, so that we can design a system that satisfies the people.” "Bus reform should follow the policy of keeping what should be kept and accepting what should be collected. For the bus that is really needed, we can refer to the experience of foreign countries, strictly manage it, and increase the punishment for the behavior of occupying the bus. For administrative institutions Information disclosure should be made on the use of public vehicles, so that the public can supervise the consumption of public vehicles, and the information on public vehicle consumption should be disclosed as much as possible.” Li Chengyan said, “For units and personnel that have canceled public vehicles and use social vehicles for official business needs, the unit can set up a A complete set of strict scope of use, approval procedures and reimbursement system. In addition to the special vehicles of law enforcement agencies such as the Public Security Bureau, the district-level government takes the lead in concentrating the public vehicles of all departments and units to form an official vehicle service company; the official vehicle service company implements Enterprise operation, do a good job of cost accounting, implement government subsidy prices for official vehicles, and implement market-oriented operations externally; auction over-standard vehicles to reflect the energy-saving and emission-reduction advocated by the government.” It is understood that the standardization of official vehicle management is a difficult problem faced by countries all over the world, and it is also generally valued.For example, the Swedish government has designed a monitoring system for official vehicles, each of which is equipped with a GPS system, and a taxi meter and a code transmitter with double buttons of "official" and "private affairs" are installed.When anyone uses a car, he must press one of the two buttons to start the car. If he presses the "private affairs" button, the driving cost will be deducted from his salary.The supervisory department conducts spot checks from the GPS record files from time to time, and if it is found that the car that pressed the "official" button is driving to a non-working place such as a business district or entertainment venue, an investigation will be conducted. Du Liyuan, a lawyer from Beijing Zhongsheng Law Firm, believes that as long as the government has the determination, the idea of ​​bus reform is very simple, and the basic principle is: take a taxi for official business.Of course, with the exception of police patrol cars, industrial and commercial law enforcement vehicles and other minimum reserved official vehicles, other vehicles such as leading cadres are all cancelled. For this reason, he put forward the reform idea of ​​"socialization of public car service", and the specific measures include four points: "First, speed up the legislative process of public car use, clarify the minimum reserved scope of public car service, use regulations, and measures to deal with public car corruption; Secondly, outside this scope, all public affairs shall be taken by taxi; thirdly, a public service car company shall be established to divert public buses and drivers beyond the scope, and finally transition to the same business scope as that of ordinary taxi companies; fourthly, the retained Official vehicles are strictly managed, and corruption in public vehicles is severely punished.” In the interviews, most of the interviewed experts believed that the essence of bus reform is to divest the interests of vested interest groups from the bus, and apart from the participation of the public, it cannot be separated from the promotion of a rigid system.Therefore, taking the road of legalization and allowing power constraints to run through the reform is bound to be the fundamental strategy of the reform of public vehicles.