Chapter 44 Chapter 42 Provisional Institutions: Regulatory Blind Spots Under Privileges

Regardless of whether it is from the perspective of administering according to the law, building a responsible government, or standing on the standpoint of eliminating corruption, it is necessary to strictly manage the temporary institutions. In recent years, in order to promote the completion of a certain work, some local governments have transferred personnel from relevant functional departments in the name of "command", "office" and "leading group" to form a large number of temporary agencies, giving them some authority over the law and administration. In order to implement unified command and unified management.

The reporter's investigation found that due to the continuous emergence of various temporary agencies and the lack of management systems, the crimes committed by their staff are also increasing year by year, seriously affecting the government's image and social credibility. Relevant experts believe that although these temporary agencies have performed their functions well and played a positive role for a period of time, under the current general direction and requirements of administering according to law and building a responsible government, setting up too many temporary agencies is not conducive to the establishment of a healthy government. An orderly socialist market economic system should attract the attention of governments at all levels and take strong measures to solve it.

According to the relevant laws and regulations of our country, administrative organs may set up temporary agencies according to the law or in order to complete a certain temporary task or work. However, the reporter's investigation found that at present, the temporary institutions set up in some places have a serious tendency to be arbitrary. Often the old ones are difficult to cancel, and new ones continue to appear. There are a lot of temporary agencies, such as the Office of Public Security, the Office of Evaluation, the Office of Promotion, and the Office of Festivals. In November 2005, Shaanxi Province cleaned up the various leading groups, committees, coordination groups, headquarters, organizing committees and other discussion and coordination institutions and temporary institutions established before December 2004, and abolished 265 discussion coordination and temporary institutions . In August 2005, Shenzhen City carried out a comprehensive clean-up of the municipal government's discussion and coordination agencies and temporary agencies established since 1995, and 145 agencies were abolished. In August 2006, Tianchang City, Anhui Province cleaned up, merged and adjusted some coordinating agencies and temporary agencies, and 52 temporary agencies were withdrawn and merged...

Judging from the survey, the proliferation of temporary agencies is not a phenomenon unique to a locality. Not only the administrative departments at all levels of the country have temporary agencies, but some large state-owned enterprises have also set up various temporary agencies.By analogy, how many provincial and ministerial-level temporary institutions, city-level temporary institutions, county-level temporary institutions, and township-level temporary institutions there are in the country, I am afraid no one can say clearly for a while. "Setting up a temporary agency to manage a specific matter has been a long-term practice in many parts of the country. It is mainly to deal with complex social situations, to give full play to the flexibility of administrative behavior, and to solve problems in economic and social development." Professor Li Chengyan, a doctoral supervisor at the School of Government and Administration of Peking University, told the reporter, “At present, most of the temporary organizations are composed of leading or deputy leading cadres from various units, and the highest-ranking leader is the team leader or commander-in-chief. Others are based on the ranks of the original units Sorting in Temporary Institutions."

On the official website of the Office of the Beijing Municipal Organization Establishment Committee, the reporter saw the "Opinions of the Beijing Municipal Organization Establishment Committee on Further Regulating the Management of Municipal Discussion and Coordination Organizations and Temporary Organizations Jingbanzi [2004] No. The discussion and coordination bodies and temporary bodies in which the secretary or the mayor serves as the group leader (director, commander, and chairman) are composed of the main responsible persons of the member units in principle; where the leaders of the municipal party committee and the municipal government are the group leaders (director, director, etc.) In principle, the members of the discussion and coordination bodies and temporary bodies of command and chairman committees are composed of leading comrades in charge of the member units. Personnel holding non-leading positions are not members of the discussion and coordination bodies and temporary bodies in principle.”

It is understood that some temporary institutions mainly undertake tasks such as market rectification and key project construction, and are characterized by high specifications and great power.Generally speaking, a temporary agency has no fixed rank and no establishment, and the salaries of its members are paid by the original unit and enjoy the benefits of the original unit.In addition, the temporary agency will give appropriate subsidies according to relevant regulations, and return to work in the original unit after the task is completed. The reporter's investigation found that due to the proliferation of temporary agencies, even the "top leaders" of the party and government in some localities or departments sometimes cannot tell how many posts they have been suspended.A reporter once received an official's business card, which was stacked several layers like a bookcase, and various titles he held were densely arranged on it—the most numerous of which were "official positions" in various temporary agencies.

As early as May 24, 2004, at the Hebei Provincial Organization Establishment Work Conference, Bai Keming, Secretary of the Hebei Provincial Party Committee and Director of the Provincial People's Congress, criticized the excessive establishment of temporary institutions: "In some places, one thing is done and one is established. The leading group, setting up a temporary organization, setting up temporary organizations and leading groups indiscriminately, has brought about? On the surface, it strengthens the leadership of the work, but in fact it weakens the role and responsibility that the functional departments should play. Originally, the functional departments should What they do, with the leading group, they have no responsibility and no role to play.”

"I don't know how many hats I wear on my head, the leader of the leading group, the commander-in-chief, and the director!" Bai Keming said, "I just remembered that I have two hats, one is the provincial party committee Secretary, one is the director of the Standing Committee of the Provincial People's Congress. Sometimes people introduce me as the group leader, and I know that I still have such a hat." During the interview, the reporter found that not only the masses resented the practice of setting up temporary institutions in some places, but some experts, scholars and even leading cadres also expressed doubts.They generally believe that the establishment of some temporary institutions is necessary, but setting up temporary institutions at will reflects the serious lack of coordination mechanisms among government management departments.

"At present, most of the temporary organizations are the product of the unclear division of labor among various departments, unclear responsibilities, overstaffing, and overjoyed achievements." Ms. Wang, who works in an agency in Beijing, believes that "it is a formality to set up a temporary organization to show that the leadership attaches great importance to it." The practice of socialism. Instead of putting on such a show, the government should do more practical things for the people.” "Since everything has jurisdiction, why are there so many temporary agencies?" A retired cadre from a government agency in Beijing pointed out sharply, "In some temporary agencies, dozens of people are listed, and almost all the leaders are listed. It turned out that the meeting could not be held once a year, and it was all nominal. What's even more ridiculous is that they even reported this to their superiors as a result. This shows two problems, one is that some government agencies are overstaffed and work efficiency is low, and the other is that Some local leaders have problems with their working ideas and working methods. With the continuous deepening of reforms, it is inevitable that the temporary institutions will be withdrawn and merged.”

"Setting up too many temporary agencies will revive the planned economy to varying degrees, which is not conducive to the establishment of a healthy and orderly socialist market economic system." Li Chengyan believes that in the absence of the "Government Organization Establishment Law" in my country, the temporary The establishment of institutions is counted by the issuance of documents by the local government. There is no institutional constraint. Most temporary institutions enjoy special rights, which stimulates the arbitrariness of many localities or departments to a certain extent. As a result, it is difficult to cancel the old ones, and new ones continue to appear, so that various temporary institutions emerge in endlessly. .

"The setting up of temporary agencies is necessary in a certain historical period, especially in terms of economic development and social management." Mr. Zhou, who was once the head of a temporary agency in Beijing, admitted to the reporter, "For some important work involving a wide range of areas, the establishment of a temporary agency has its inevitability and objectivity. The key is to do a good job in standardized management and cancel it in time after completing the task." In the interviews, the interviewees generally believed that the non-standardization of the admission and exit mechanisms was the main reason for the proliferation of temporary institutions.The direct consequence of this is to cause unnecessary confusion in the society: on the one hand, "politics comes from many sources", and the people are at a loss for what to do.On the other hand, people don't know who to turn to when they have problems.Under such circumstances, it also provides space and opportunities for different government departments to shirk their responsibilities. With the rapid development of our country's social economy, many problems have been exposed in some temporary agencies in recent years, the most serious of which is the sharp increase in economic crime cases, making temporary agencies one of the "hardest hit areas" for duty-related crimes by state staff. In some major cases that have been investigated, it is not difficult to see the names of various temporary agency staff. Chen Jianxin, the former director of the Preparatory Office of Zhejiang Wenzhou Science and Technology Museum, is an example.He used the temporary organization to make a big fuss, spending more than 37 million yuan in public funds to purchase 358 exhibits. After the technical acceptance of the expert group, the pass rate was only 7.1%, becoming a veritable technological "waste". , was sentenced to 9 years in prison in October 2006. The incident drew widespread attention to corruption in the Provisional Institutions.In fact, in recent years, there have indeed been many corruption cases in the provisional institutions—— In 2004, the "nest case" that occurred in the Binyang sub-headquarters of the former Nanning-Liuzhou Expressway Construction Headquarters shocked the whole country. Several people, including Wei Shanchuan, the deputy director, and Huang Chunyou, the former deputy director of the Binyang County Land Bureau, falsified the signatures of others, made false names, and even used the names of dead people to wantonly falsely issue receipts for land acquisition compensation and flood compensation, embezzling various places. A total of more than 1.46 million yuan in compensation. In August 2006, Zhang Baojing, former deputy director of the "Three Electricity Office" in Mentougou District, Beijing, was sentenced to death for embezzling more than 6.89 million yuan, with a two-year reprieve, deprived of political rights for life, and confiscated all personal property... According to the reporter's understanding, the abyss of crime that these temporary agency staff members have fallen into is not only their own reasons, but also has a lot to do with the particularity and defects of the temporary agency itself. First of all, the personnel of the temporary agency are dispatched by relevant departments, and the power lacks restriction and supervision.Within this agency, personnel sent by relevant functional departments or part-time personnel, while accepting the unified leadership of the main person in charge of this temporary agency, are mainly responsible for exercising corresponding functions and powers on behalf of the dispatched agency. Since there are several competent departments of the temporary agency, and there are many political parties, no one is responsible for the division of responsibilities, so it is difficult to determine.In particular, there is no clear regulation on which departments should undertake the supervision functions of the temporary agency and how to conduct supervision, which makes it easy for this agency to break away from the original supervision and control mechanism of the party committee, government and functional departments, and to dissociate from discipline inspection and supervision, industry and commerce, taxation, price, In addition, many people and even some leaders themselves have a "temporary" concept, which makes it possible for some people to use their powers to implement "power-for-money transactions". Although the temporary agency established according to the law is qualified as an administrative subject, it can bear the corresponding legal consequences in its own name.If it cannot independently bear the corresponding legal consequences, the administrative agency that set up the temporary agency should bear the responsibility.However, due to the ambiguity of the legal status, those temporary institutions cobbled together by several departments, which seem to be jointly responsible, actually become "jointly irresponsible".As a result, supervision has been lost, and some temporary agency staff are lucky, and corruption has taken advantage of it. Secondly, the income and expenditure of the temporary agency is relatively large, and the financial management mechanism is not perfect.The tasks undertaken by the temporary agencies are generally more important, and many of them have strong policy orientation. They are often short-term in nature and hold real power. One hundred thousand. According to insiders, at present, the internal control system of temporary institutions is generally not sound, lacks institutional constraints, accounting information is not sound, or even missing, and various funds have not been stored in special financial accounts.Due to the loss of supervision and control of the temporary agency, coupled with the momentary weight of individual responsible persons, who do not operate in accordance with the financial management system, income from informal channels has increased, expenditures have become more random, and staff in charge of huge amounts of money have become corrupt, making it even more difficult. easy. In addition, after the abolition of the temporary agency, the personnel returned to their original units, and the relevant archives and financial accounts were also archived or destroyed, which brought great difficulties to discovering and investigating violations of discipline and law. Third, the decision-making of some ad hoc institutions is arbitrary, which provides the possibility of "power-for-money transactions".The purpose of setting up temporary agencies is to centralize the exercise of relevant powers and seek high efficiency.However, the reporter's investigation found that the decision-making of many temporary agencies is arbitrary and the operation is not standardized.In order to complete a certain task, departments such as land approval, taxation, business administration, public security, procuratorate and law have to "give way" for it. "The functions of many temporary agencies are 'super', directly replacing market law enforcement departments such as industry and commerce, commodity prices, and technical supervision." Li Chengyan analyzed that these temporary agencies are mainly concentrated in urban development, transportation, water conservancy construction and other "profitable" industries. Fields, often become the key "tackling" targets of criminals. Relevant experts believe that whether it is from the perspective of administering according to law, building a responsible government, or standing on the standpoint of eliminating corruption, the provisional institutions must be strictly managed.For temporary agencies that really need to be established, their tasks, responsibilities, revocation conditions and deadlines should be clarified in accordance with legal procedures.At the same time, it is necessary to clarify the management department and strengthen the system construction of the temporary agency to improve the supervision mechanism of the temporary agency. "Under the current background of ruling the country according to law and building a responsible government, to strictly manage temporary institutions, the government must change its concept and function, and develop from a management-oriented government to a service-oriented government." Professor Li Mingwei of Beijing Institute of Petrochemical Technology believes, "All localities The government should standardize various temporary agencies, and at the same time, local governments should exercise statutory powers and manage social and public affairs within the legal procedures and scope. It is important to scientifically delineate powers and improve procedures, rather than setting up temporary agencies for everything .” "Currently there is no standard for the reform of the coordinating organization, which is a nationwide problem." Professor Mao Shoulong, a doctoral supervisor at the School of Public Administration of Renmin University of China, said that at present, from the central government to the local government, the coordinating organization is constantly being cleaned up and reformed. , but the overall effect is not very good. It is understood that some developed countries have particularly strict procedures for setting up temporary agencies.First, the relevant departments and expert committees put forward a special report, followed by the discussion of the administrative meeting, and finally a decision can be made. Moreover, except for some temporary agencies with strong urgency, most of them need the approval of the House of Representatives before they can be appointed.In other words, in order to control the self-expansion of temporary institutions and prevent the occurrence of "temporary corruption", in addition to the rule of law and procedures, democracy is also needed. Similarly, the phenomenon that some temporary agencies still exist "illegally" for a long time after completing their missions is not "Chinese characteristics".According to relevant experts, in order to solve such problems, some developed countries have adopted a method called "sunset legislation" to prevent the proliferation of temporary institutions. Actions to re-examine its necessity and re-authorize the institution may survive. "Whether it is the establishment, termination or revocation of a temporary agency, or upgrading to a permanent agency, it must go through legal procedures and be carried out in accordance with relevant laws. The first step that must be taken to manage a temporary agency should be the rule of law." Li Chengyan believes that the government Service agencies should be set up reasonably according to actual needs, and the responsibilities and powers of functional departments should be reasonably defined and fixed in legal form.Administration according to law has become the norm, and the accountability system has been effectively promoted, so that each can perform his or her own duties and take responsibility, instead of setting up a temporary agency to "rectify and rectify" when problems pile up. "We should not only clean up the temporary institutions, but also strengthen the supervision of the existing temporary institutions. In particular, we should straighten out the management system of the temporary institutions as soon as possible, clarify the management department, strengthen the system construction of the temporary institutions, and establish and improve the internal control mechanism." For this reason. , Du Liyuan, a lawyer from Beijing Zhongsheng Law Firm, suggested that to implement effective supervision on the finances of temporary institutions, we must give full play to the functions of discipline inspection, supervision, auditing, and finance departments.At the same time, the "Government Organization Establishment Law" should be promulgated as soon as possible. The establishment of temporary agencies must go through relevant legal procedures, regulate the work tasks, responsibilities, conditions and deadlines of the temporary agencies in accordance with the law, improve the supervision mechanism, and prevent the temporary agencies from degenerating into corrupt institutions. hotbed.