CCTV News:As China’s poverty alleviation and development has entered a critical stage, the central and local governments’ investment in poverty alleviation funds has been increasing. What should be the "life-saving money" of the poor has become the "cash cow" of some corrupt officials.
These leading cadres have lost their ideals and beliefs and engaged in corruption under the pretext of helping the poor. They use various means such as making things out of nothing, making false reports and taking the initiative, intercepting private parts, and colluding with others, making the field of poverty alleviation a high-incidence area of unhealthy practices that infringe on the interests of the masses and corruption.
Fan Zengyu, former director of the Foreign Investment Project Management Center of the State Council Poverty Alleviation Office, is one of them.
The corruption path of poverty alleviation officials: obtaining tens of millions of assets by cheating and lending usury with poverty alleviation funds
In 2004, Fan Zengyu was transferred to Henan Poverty Alleviation Office. Two years later, Fan Zengyu was transferred to Beijing to take charge of the training center for cadres in poverty-stricken areas in the State Council Poverty Alleviation Office. Three years later, Fan Zengyu was promoted to the position of Director of Foreign Investment Project Management Center of the State Council Poverty Alleviation Office.
Fan Zengyu, former director of the Foreign Investment Project Management Center of the State Council Poverty Alleviation Office (data map)
"I served as a department-level cadre in 1992, and served as a deputy department-level and director-level cadre after 2006. It is the fastest one promoted by the the State Council Poverty Alleviation Office from the deputy hall to the main hall in recent years."
In June 2008, Fan Zengyu met with Ding Yuxin (formerly known as Ding Shumiao), then the chairman of Boao Investment Management Group Co., Ltd.
The road to corruption of collusion between officials and businessmen began.
According to the prosecution’s accusation, at the end of 2009, Fan Zengyu illegally appropriated RMB 2.6 million donated by Ding Yuxin to the Office of the Leading Group for Poverty Alleviation and Development of the State Council.
From 2009 to 2010, Fan Zengyu accepted Ding Yuxin’s request and provided him with the opportunity to donate money to poverty alleviation projects organized by the State Council Poverty Alleviation Office, so as to establish a positive image and avoid investigation by relevant departments. To this end, Fan Zengyu has asked for or accepted Ding Yuxin for 38 times, which is equivalent to 40.13 million yuan.
From August to November, 2010, Fan Zengyu fictionalized the fact that he helped Ding Yuxin repay Zhu’s debts and defrauded Ding Yuxin of RMB 3.9 million.
In December, 2010, pretending to be the relevant leader, he contacted Ding Yuxin by SMS, and defrauded Ding Yuxin of RMB 2 million and Euro200,000 successively.
From the end of December 2010 to the Spring Festival of 2011, after learning that Ding Yuxin had been taken compulsory measures by the public security organs, he lied to Zhang, a subordinate of Ding Yuxin, that he knew the relevant leaders, which could help Ding Yuxin smooth the relationship, and successively defrauded Zhang’s property for a total of more than RMB 8.9 million.
Fan Zengyu got to know Ding Yuxin for more than two years, and got as much as 60 million yuan from Ding. Its appetite is huge and insatiable, which is amazing.
On April 29, 2015, Beijing No.1 Intermediate People’s Court sentenced him to death with a suspended sentence for accepting bribes, corruption and fraud, and confiscated all his personal property.
Fan Zengyu is not the only one on the road to corruption.
Jiang Jinghuai, former director of the Old District Office of Lidun Town, zhouning county, Fujian Province, started the idea of special poverty alleviation funds. A friend pointed out the way to make a fortune for him. "Lending with public funds can earn some interest, and short-term turnover can be profitable. If you want to make a fortune, you can’t take risks." Driven by interests, Jiang Jinghuai embezzled the subsidy of 575,000 yuan for the implementation of the second phase of the geological disaster relocation benefit project in Dongshan Village, Lidun Town. He transferred 500 thousand yuan to the personal account of "partner" for usury, and the remaining 75 thousand yuan was used for reception and personal expenses "Partners" fulfilled their revenue commitments as agreed, and in a few years, Jiang Jinghuai earned more than 500,000 yuan.
"Without the spirit of adventure, how can you achieve your career? This opportunity to make a fortune has finally arrived!" Just when Jiang Jinghuai was dreaming of making a fortune, he didn’t know that the net of discipline and law had been built over to him.
On June 22, 2017, Jiang Jinghuai was expelled from the party. For committing the crime of corruption, zhouning county People’s Court sentenced Jiang Jinghuai to four years and two months’ imprisonment and fined 600,000 yuan, and the 575,000 yuan for the benefit of loans and personal expenses was also recovered according to law.
"Goose plucking" Poverty Alleviation: Only 30% of the 10 million poverty alleviation funds are left in the poverty alleviation office.
Corruption in the field of poverty alleviation is not just an individual phenomenon. It is not uncommon for many people in poverty alleviation departments to corrupt and collude with each other, and it is not uncommon for some poverty alleviation offices to fall into the whole.
Huayuan County, Xiangxi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture, Hunan Province is a national poverty-stricken county. In September, 2013, Hunan Provincial Water Resources Department officially approved the actual investment of 10.71 million yuan in Zhuchao Project for comprehensive control of soil erosion on sloping farmland in this county. During the bidding and construction of this project, Shimou, director of county water conservancy bureau, Longmou, deputy director of water conservation bureau, Mamou and others, as well as Hu, then chief of regulation department of Zhangjiajie Grain Bureau, and Shumou, driver of Huayuan County Water Conservation Bureau, etc., manipulated bidding, forged final accounts of the project, and falsely reported the engineering quantity. The 303 hectares of soil erosion area that was originally planned to be controlled was finally completed less than 23%.
Cadres at provincial, state and county levels are involved in the case. The discipline inspection and supervision organs of Hunan Province put 24 people on file for review and admonished 35 people who received red envelopes. The number of people involved and the depth of violation of discipline and law are shocking.
In yuping county, Guizhou Province, a poverty relief office with a total population of 27 people exposed a corruption case, involving two former leaders, six current leaders and three middle-level business backbones.
Jian Guanglu, former Party Secretary and Director of Poverty Alleviation Office in Yuping County, Guizhou Province (video screenshot)
In July 2007, the Guizhou Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection informed the Yuping County Poverty Alleviation Office of the serious corruption case and accountability. The circular pointed out that from April 2012 to May 2016, Jian Guanglu, the former party secretary and director of Yuping County Poverty Alleviation Office, repeatedly instructed relevant personnel of the unit to collect "working funds" from enterprises and individuals applying for credit poverty alleviation discount funds, set up a "small treasury" privately, and used it to distribute employee benefits in violation of regulations and share it with some personnel. At the same time, the county poverty alleviation office did not strictly check the information of enterprises applying for discount loans, resulting in eight enterprises colluding with bank staff to obtain discount funds.
The case involved 11 party member cadres, 1 bank employee and 8 enterprises of the county poverty alleviation office, and accumulated 3.78 million yuan of disciplinary funds. The people involved in the case were severely dealt with, among them, seven people, including Jian Guanglu and Xiang Hui, former party member and deputy director of Yuping County Poverty Alleviation Office, were transferred to judicial organs for legal treatment.
In 2012, in the series of corruption cases of poverty alleviation in Bayannaoer City, Inner Mongolia, 10 poverty alleviation officials from eight poverty alleviation offices, including Bayannaoer City and Wuyuan County, were investigated and dealt with, and the total amount of corruption reached 8.3 million yuan. According to the survey, the poverty alleviation funds were skinned layer by layer: 40% was deducted in the name of "activity funds" from the city to Qixian, and 40% was deducted from Qixian to townships. The "activity funds" were subsequently embezzled by some cadres. Among them, Guo, the former director of the Municipal Poverty Alleviation Office, embezzled 3.73 million yuan after serving for three years, and there were still more than 1.02 million yuan of huge property that could not explain the legal source. The investigators of the procuratorate said: "Some poverty alleviation offices have fallen as a whole."
Open confrontation with the investigation: hunger strike, suicide, pouncing on biting, and the accounts are "flawless"
The process of interrogating these corrupt officials was not smooth sailing. Some officials were lucky, refused to explain the problem, and even used extreme means to confront the case handlers.
Zhou Hui, former member of the Standing Committee of Shawan County Committee in Tacheng District, Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (data map)
Zhou Hui, former member of the Standing Committee of Shawan County Committee in Tacheng District, Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, used the policies of the state and autonomous regions to support agriculture, benefit farmers and help the poor, and arranged staff to obtain funds and financial allocations for various projects in the state and autonomous regions by means of false reporting and reporting projects, and withheld farmers’ self-raised funds and land contract fees, which were managed outside the account and set up a small treasury, involving tens of millions of yuan.
After the incident, Zhou Hui not only went on hunger strike intermittently for several months, but also threatened the case handlers in a suicidal way from time to time, so that at least three policemen accompanied him 24 hours a day in his cell. He not only curses, but also jumps on and bites when he is manic, and often makes a hullabaloo about at night. Zhou Hui also said that he had stomach cancer and had a definite diagnosis in Beijing Grand Hospital. Every day, he cried out that he had to go to Beijing for treatment. The case-handling personnel contacted the hospital in Beijing as soon as possible. The diagnosis certificate proved that there was no cancer at all. He just had an examination there before.
The unnecessary resistance did not let Zhou Hui escape the punishment of the law. On February 6, 2016, Zhou Hui was sentenced to 19 years in prison for committing corruption and misappropriation of public funds.
Huang Dajian, former deputy director of the Audit Bureau of Xiangxi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture in Hunan Province, regards poverty alleviation as a "cash cow" for his personal gain. From 2007 to 2008, Huang Dajian defrauded poverty alleviation funds totaling 120,000 yuan by means of falsely reporting poverty alleviation projects and falsely invoicing. At the end of 2008, Huang Dajian won 50,000 yuan of citrus industry development poverty alleviation funds without authorization in the name of the poverty alleviation working group. In 2010, he colluded with his wife and brother Li Shanchuan and put the 50,000 yuan into his pocket by means of false invoicing and reimbursement.
In the face of censorship, Huang Dajian still has luck.
"His mouth was so hard that he refused to explain anything at first."
According to the investigators, Huang Dajian used his own experience in auditing to defraud poverty alleviation funds by borrowing funds first and then falsely invoicing for reimbursement. Therefore, from the accounts alone, Huang Dajian’s work can be described as "seamless". Facing the police handling the case, he also plausibly said: "I am a cadre who has been engaged in auditing for many years. How can I know the law and break the law? There is definitely no problem in the use of poverty alleviation funds."
Anti-corruption police re-adjusted their thinking and strengthened their clues. After Li Shanchuan was arrested and brought to justice, Huang Dajian could no longer find a reason to shirk, bowed his head and truthfully confessed all his criminal facts. In June 2015, the court sentenced Huang Dajian and Li Shanchuan to four years and one year and five months respectively for corruption.
From personal "reaching out" to "swallowing up", this corruption case that fell on the road to poverty alleviation is shocking. While implementing the strategy of "Great Poverty Alleviation" and increasing investment in projects and funds, these cases also remind the party and the government to strengthen supervision and supervision over poverty alleviation cadres and ensure that these measures for benefiting the people can really "land". (Text/Ren Jia)