Chapter 38 Chapter 8: Breaking the Problem——4 The Number One Problem in the World

Thinking about it carefully, since the implementation of the family contract system, China's rural reforms have never stopped. It is only because most of them are piecemeal and individual advances that many deep-seated problems have not been touched.This tax and fee reform is different. It brings to the surface various problems that have been lurking in the countryside for a long time, which also provides a rare opportunity for the whole to advance and solve these problems in a comprehensive manner. At least, the various drawbacks in the township system have been highlighted unprecedentedly.

First of all, the township organizations under this system have done many things that should not be done.They often build public facilities beyond their actual capacity, and participate too much in farmers' market activities.The transformation of government functions has no choice but to be put on the table. The second is that many people who should not be raised have been raised.This is the case at the township level, and the same is true at the village level, so downsizing of personnel is unavoidable. Furthermore, a lot of money was spent that should not have been spent.Let’s look at the village level first. Among other things, just spending on newspapers and periodicals ordered by various departments above is enough to exhaust all the financial resources of a village committee. If you don’t take money out of the peasants’ pockets, you can’t do anything. , and most of those newspapers and periodicals have nothing to do with farming, and they are all treated as waste paper in the end.Looking at townships and towns again, in Shouxian County, Anhui Province, a township with a debt of more than 11 million yuan, this time the tax reform has tightened the hospitality management system, saving 130,000 yuan in expenses throughout the year; stricter telephone management The system also saved nearly 30,000 yuan; improved the car system, saved 140,000 yuan; standardized the electricity system, saved another 110,000 yuan; if no basic construction expenditures are arranged within three years, it is estimated that The deficit can be reduced by more than one million yuan just by saving money!

If you don’t change it, you don’t know. If you change it, you will be shocked! Among them, what is particularly prominent and urgent is the overstaffed and overcrowded organization.How to solve this problem has become the biggest problem in the world. In the words of Zhang Ping, the executive vice governor of Anhui Province, at the on-site meeting of the reform of township institutions in the province, it is: "eating imperial food, viewed horizontally, surpassed any country; viewed vertically, surpassed all dynasties. You said we can afford such Is there too many people? I can’t afford it, and in the end, I have to turn to the common people to collect money, plunder the people’s fat and riches, and extort money. Of course, I don’t mean that this is the case now, but if it is not resolutely controlled, if it continues to develop, this trend will inevitably be avoided!”

It should also be noted that the unreasonable burden on farmers is not that simple.If it is unreasonable, it is also caused by the unreasonable current political and economic system. Therefore, if we do not design comprehensive reform and overall promotion in our reform today, we will inevitably lose sight of the other.However, for such a major reform of rural taxes and fees, the leading group is not located in The comprehensive management department of the State Council is placed in the Ministry of Finance; the reform plan is formulated by the leaders of the three ministries of finance, finance and agriculture. They are unable and impossible to fully consider more things outside their own departments. For example, the plan cancels the surcharges for rural education and education fundraising, and the finances do not invest accordingly. Although this partially reduces the burden on farmers, it has plunged rural compulsory education into an unprecedented crisis.For example, this plan seldom takes into account the successful experience of past pilot reforms in various places, and still unreasonably retains the agricultural specialty tax that cannot be collected truthfully. If it cannot be collected truthfully, it will still cause rural At the same time, the provident fund in the original "village reserve" was removed from the "agricultural tax surcharge", as if it was removed from the burden of farmers, but it is not only still the burden of farmers, but also this This kind of "one matter, one discussion" is very likely to leave hidden dangers for future arbitrary charges.In particular, the reform of taxes and fees has indeed reduced the burden on farmers, but at the same time it has also brought unprecedented impact on the normal operation of townships and the construction of village-level organizations.From the perspective of the whole province, after the tax and fee reform, the income of townships has generally decreased by more than 30%, and the income of villages has decreased by 70% to 80%. The gap between income and expenditure is large, which not only makes it difficult to carry out normal work, but also seriously restricts the development of various undertakings in rural areas.If these problems are not resolved, the central government's policy will be empty, and the reform goals will be in vain. The most realistic and difficult way to solve these problems is to streamline the organization, divert personnel, reduce expenditure, and reduce burdens.

Wuhe County, Anhui Province has made a bold breakthrough in solving this "world's number one problem" and achieved remarkable results. It was Zhu Yong, secretary of the Wuhe County Party Committee at the time, who dared to take the lead in taking this risky move.This is a demobilized soldier who returned from a missile launch base in the west of the motherland.Just because he has climbed and rolled in the Badain Jaran Desert in Inner Mongolia and the Taklamakan Desert in Xinjiang, there is no difficulty for him to bow his head.Zhu Yong believes that in order to lead everyone to carry out such a major reform, first of all, the charisma of the leadership team is needed.He said: "Reform must be carried out on your own head first."

Wuhe County is also one of the early pilot counties along the Huaihe River that carried out tax reform. At that time, they cleared out 2,354 non-registration and temporary employees in the township at one time.The action can't be considered small, because the work is done carefully, there are no petitions or troubles.In April 2000, when Anhui piloted the tax reform in the whole province, Zhu Yong clearly saw that if the tax reform is simply understood as a change in the method of tax collection, it is not a drastic reduction in the number of employees in the county. Reduce work, reduce fees, and reduce institutions, not to mention that the normal work at the township and village levels will be difficult to maintain. This agricultural pilot project deployed by the central government can only be vigorous for a while, and then return to the old way.However, to streamline the organization and divert personnel, there will be many problems and difficulties that need to be faced. We must take a serious approach. We must not only come up with practical solutions, but also show the determination and courage to break the boat. Otherwise, we will press the gourd today. Tomorrow, we will pick up the ladle, and we have already learned a lot in this regard.In the history of new China, only the institutions of townships have been refined

Jane passed several times, and the result was thunder and lightning when the wind came. After the incident, the preserved eggs were relaxed and always fell into a vicious circle of "simplification-expansion-re-simplification-re-expansion". Get out of this vicious circle.Now that the central government and the provincial government have made such a big determination to change the fate of "Fei", the rest of the problem depends on the party committees and governments at all levels below, whether they dare to set themselves on fire and really "drain the fire" on themselves.

At the mobilization meeting of the six major teams in Wuhe County, Zhu Yong said with a strong foreign accent: "This time, if we want to come, we will bring some real ones. It doesn't matter if you mess around, and it won't last long!" Of course, the solution cannot be conceived by sitting in an office, and past experience may not always be reliable. The only way is to go deep into reality and the masses. As Mao Zedong said, you have to taste "the taste of pears." To take big actions, you must have boldness, accompanied by careful plans and arrangements.For this reason, the county party committee launched a massive campaign of "entering 100 villages, staying for 100 days, and visiting 100 households", mobilizing thousands of cadres at the county and township levels to station in villages. Farmers eat together, live together, and work together, do a good job of investigation and research honestly, truly understand social conditions and public opinion, analyze those contradictions and problems that may arise when deepening reforms, and carefully explore the ideas and specific operation methods of supporting reforms.

In order to ensure the safety of this work, Zhu Yong, the secretary of the county party committee, Zhang Guiyi, the county magistrate, and the heads of the six major teams took the lead in setting an example and went to the front line in person.Twenty townships in the county, and twenty county-level cadres "divided troops to guard" and "stationed to cover areas", when the task of reforming the township institutions in charge has been successfully completed, and when can they return home and withdraw to the county seat. The biggest experience of the pilot project first is: one is determined not to lose shape, and the six major teams work together.The mental state of the leadership team determines the success or failure of this reform.Therefore, Zhu Yong particularly emphasized: On the issue of streamlining the organization and diverting personnel, leading cadres at the county level and the bureau level, especially, are not allowed to favor relatives and friends, are not allowed to greet and intercede, and are not allowed to engage in favors. Measure the ruler to the end, and whoever violates the regulations will be investigated and dealt with", and we will never engage in "not to set an example"!

The pilot project started on September 1, 2000, it was fully rolled out on September 30, and it ended on October 20. It took 50 days for Wuhe County to successfully carry out a "three mergers" that later affected the whole province. Three changes" work. "Three mergers" means merging villages, schools, and public institutions; "three reforms" mean reforming township institutions, reforming the education system, and reforming the personnel system. Let’s talk about merged schools first.In accordance with the principle of "adapting measures to local conditions, enrolling nearby, relatively concentrated, and seeking practical results", the rural primary and secondary schools in Wuhe County were merged from the original 435 to 240, and 195 were abolished. The area has been reduced by 45%, which is close to half; 175 permanent teachers have been diverted, making the overall school layout, teacher-student ratio and teacher strength relatively more scientific and reasonable in the rural areas of the county.

Simultaneously with the merger of schools, it is the merger of villages.On the premise of fully respecting public opinion and focusing on moderate scale and ease of management, large villages were merged into small villages, strong villages were merged into weak villages, stable villages were merged into chaotic villages, and 438 villages in the county were withdrawn and merged into 222 villages. Among the five villages, the establishment of 213 villages has been reduced, and the number of streamlined areas has reached 49%.As a result, the number of village cadres has been reduced from 3,192 to 1,125, a decrease of 2,067, and the number of cadres has been reduced by more than half, up to 6%. Fifteen; the number of villager groups was also adjusted from 3,122 to 1,756, a reduction of 1,376, a reduction of 44%. The overall advancement of the work of merging villages and schools has created conditions for the reform of township institutions and provided guarantees. Then, the number of internal institutions of the county's township party and government agencies has been reduced from 220 to 45. One hundred and seventy-five were cut down, a reduction of 70%.Public institutions were also reduced from 256 to 124, and 132 were cut, a reduction of 52%.The actual number of people has been reduced from 1,292 to 768, and 524 people have been reduced to 41%. Twelve people were reduced to 520 people, and 462 people were reduced, which also reached 47%. What is commendable is that in this reform of the township organization, the county party committee is particularly soberly aware that the failure of the previous organizational reforms in our country is largely due to the kind of streamlining. Less consideration should be given to the transformation of functions, especially the decomposition of functions; to put it bluntly, they only value the form and do not touch their own internal interests. system.After the "three mergers and three reforms", some units with similar functions, overlapping businesses, and relatively single tasks, such as agricultural technology extension stations, animal husbandry and aquatic products stations, water conservancy construction management stations, forestry stations, and agricultural machinery management stations, were all merged. , became an agricultural technology service station; the land management office and the village and town construction planning station were also merged into the land and village construction station; the legal service station and the labor service station were restructured into social intermediaries.In addition to retaining the two original family planning service stations and cultural radio and television stations, through mergers, cancellations, and transfers, the original thirteen or four business stations in the township were reduced to five.Of course, while streamlining and reducing institutions and personnel, in order to meet the needs of the market economy and facilitate further transformation of government functions, all townships have set up economic development service centers, and Chengguan Town has also specially set up community service centers.In terms of the establishment of party and government institutions, the townships have also greatly reduced the original more than ten internal institutions with complete categories and detailed division of labor: except for Chengguan Town and the three central administrative towns, party and government offices, economic Except for the Office of Development and the Office of Social Affairs (with the sign of the Office of Family Planning), the remaining 16 townships only retained the Office of the Party and Government (with the sign of the Office of Family Planning) and the Office of Economic Development. Most of the directors are also part-time members of the party and government team, which minimizes the number of cadres. The biggest feature of the "three mergers and three reforms" is that the township organs in Wuhe County are no longer "complete with five internal organs".Due to the smooth implementation of the reform of township institutions, the institutionalization and standardization of township management in Wuhe County has been effectively promoted, and the sense of crisis and urgency of rural grassroots cadres in Wuhe County has been enhanced. In a word: change the pressure, change the vitality, and change the productivity! Some people say: This kind of "injury to the bones" is weakening the leadership of the party at the grassroots level.But Zhu Yong said: To reduce public grievances is to truly strengthen the party's leadership! On December 9, near the end of the year, Wang Taihua, Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, also came to Wuhe County.He had a heart-to-heart discussion with the main responsible comrades of the four major groups in the county on how to further carry out the work of rural tax reform. He talks in detail. He reminded everyone to pay attention to the resettlement of displaced persons in townships. First, the wages during the three-year waiting period must be paid; second, after entering the enterprise, when the enterprise develops endowment insurance, the period of working as a civil servant in the government should also be counted.He said that the work of merging schools has only started now. We have withdrawn and merged from the number and on the surface, but a lot of work needs to be further improved.In the future, in rural areas, regardless of middle schools or primary schools, we must emphasize the scale and rationality of running schools, and constantly improve the quality of teaching through measures such as competition for teachers.He said that a year’s tuition fees for rural students is equivalent to a farmer planting a few mu of land for nothing or raising a pig for nothing. The main reason for the high school fees is that there are too many tutoring materials; Are there so many college students?To reduce the burden on schools and students is to start from the specific things of reducing students' schoolbags. At the same time, it is necessary to prohibit charging students for watching movies and quality education. He said that the reform of taxes and fees has reduced the burden on farmers, so I thought, can all the village branch secretaries be covered by finances?You can try it.Those who are relatively good in the institutional reform can even include newly assigned college students. I think they can all serve as branch secretaries in the village.If he can be a good village party secretary and come to work in the township or county in the future, there will be absolutely no problem.The most important issue for the development of the village-level collective economy in the next step is to adjust the industrial structure and increase farmers' income. These comrades are not from the village, so they can be very detached and concentrate on their work.Of course, the tenure system must be implemented for dispatching, and task assessment must be carried out. Those who complete the task assessment objectives can become "flying pigeons" and then replaced by other young cadres. This is the need for grassroots organization construction, rural development and rural stability. The needs of the organization are the needs of training cadres. He said that after the reform of the township organization, the transformation of functions should focus on achieving "three unifications" and "three priorities".This is: in the past, we were responsible to the top, but now we have to be responsible to both the top and the bottom, and the responsibility is mainly to the bottom; in the past, we only relied on administrative orders, but now we must not only implement administrative orders, but also rely on laws, democracy, and education. Instead, it is more necessary to carry out work mainly through legal means, democratic means, and educational means; in the past, it was only to complete tasks, including family planning, fiscal and taxation tasks, etc. Do a good job in the unification of services, and we must focus on services. He said: The most important thing about the "Three Represents" is to represent the fundamental interests of the broadest masses of the people! Soon after Wang Taihua returned to the provincial capital, the provincial party committee selected 3,000 outstanding young cadres from all cities and counties in the province, and sent them to impoverished villages and later villages to serve as party branch secretaries in order to strengthen the construction of grassroots party organizations there; , the Provincial Party Committee also dispatched 10,000 outstanding cadres from party and government agencies and institutions at the provincial, city, and county levels, with their own luggage, to station in 10,000 administrative villages in the province with relatively lagging economies and relatively weak grassroots organizations to help The stationed villages establish and improve various rules and regulations with village affairs openness and democratic management as the main content, and improve the operation mechanism of village self-government under the leadership of the village party branch.Of course, what is more important is to help the farmers there to quickly advance the strategic adjustment of the agricultural structure in accordance with the laws of the market and respect the wishes of the masses. The adjustment of agricultural structure, the development of rural economy, and the work of increasing farmers' income carried out in various parts of Anhui Province are almost carried out simultaneously with the reform of rural taxes and fees.