Enhanced supervision for targeted poverty alleviation

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Qin Shengwei, former director of poverty alleviation office in Wuxuan County, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region was sued due to negligence which led to a poverty relief fund loss of 630,000 yuan; three village officials from Changsha Village, Sanjia Town, Yangchun City, Guangdong Province were sued for embezzling poverty relief and development fund totaling 200,000 yuan…it has been widely noticed that procuratorate authorities have investigated a number of agricultural poverty alleviation crimes since 2015, and it’s all thanks to a decision by the Supreme People’s Procuratorate: procuratorate authorities in China were ordered to launch a two-year campaign starting from July 2015 to concentrate efforts on preventing and punishing those who have committed job-related crimes in agricultural poverty alleviation work.

According to an official from the Supreme People’s Procuratorate’s anti-corruption and bribery bureau, the number and frequency of job-related crimes in agricultural poverty alleviation work is still high and the crimes have several characteristics in common: there’re more crimes committed by lower-level officials, who come from the same work unit and conspire together, the money embezzled is large, while the crimes all happened in the same link. “According to our analysis, there’re several reasons leading to the crimes, such as insufficient management system, inefficient supervision, lack of policy education and legal awareness and so on,” The official said.

An everlasting campaign to keep the crime rate low

On February 23 2016, the Supreme People’s Procuratorate and the State Council Poverty Alleviation and Development Group held a joint meeting in Lanzhou City, Gansu Province to lay out the five-year plan until December 2020 to prevent and investigate job-related crimes in poverty alleviation work. They jointly issued the Work Plan by People’s Procuratorates and Poverty Alleviation Departments to Regulate and Prevent Duty-Related Crimes in Poverty Alleviation. The Plan has detailed tasks in seven regards. It strives to ensure relevant crime rate is kept at the minimum while sufficient punishment is given to those found guilty, and promote a supervision system to safeguard the poverty alleviation fund and let it be used with transparency.

Targeted investigation to ensure incentives are truly implemented

The war against poverty must answer three questions, who is the subject in need of help, who is to help them, and how. How does the procuratorate organ answer these questions?

At the Central Poverty Alleviation and Development Work Conference, Chinese President Xi Jinping stressed that the poverty alleviation fund must be managed in a transparent manner, audit supervision must be strengthened, and concentrate on regulation and punishment of duty-related crimes. He said those who embezzle, intercept, squander and falsely report and cheat their way into the fund must be severely punished.

Procurator-General Cao Jianming said, “it’s not only an important pathway for the watchdog to partake in poverty alleviation, strengthening regulation and preventing duty-related primes in poverty alleviation is also a major action for the central government to implement the anti-corruption campaign and crack down tigers and flies at the same time. His words have reassured the farmers and cleared their worries.

Only through investigations, regulations and punishing those who committed job-related crimes while handling poverty alleviation funds can the incentives truly benefit the people, and it’s the key for the procuratorate organ to participate in the poverty alleviation campaign.

During investigations, watchdogs at all levels have thoroughly studied agricultural poverty alleviation policies introduced by the central and local governments. On top of learning the overall scale of financial input, each projects and specific policies, approval procedures, operation models and detailed processes, they also looked into links where input was large and problems were likely to arise. They have pushed forward investigations with efficient measures, and answered farmers’ expectations for the anti-corruption campaign.

Under the leadership of the Supreme People’s Procuratorate, watchdogs at all levels have launched special actions in accordance with their local situations to push for in-depth investigations of job-related crimes in agricultural poverty alleviation work.

Shandong Procuratorate listed negligence in rural reconstruction fund as one of the special action programs. In the first 10 months of 2015, the watchdog found 136 people to be guilty of negligence and duty-related crimes, accounting for 15.6 percent of all cases in the period. Of those numbers, 97 people were involved in serious cases, accounting for 71.3 percent of all people found guilty. In Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, in an investigation regarding a disaster relief fund, 62 cases were filed and 78 people were found guilty; in a drinking water construction project, 33 cases were filed and 77 people were found guilty.

On June 18 2015, more than 30 petitioners from Qingbei Village, Pingshun County, Shanxi Province went to the local county procuratorate to report the village party secretary, Zhang, for intercepting disaster relief goods and funds, deducting poverty alleviation fund and embezzling compensations. The local watchdog quickly began an investigation. It documented more than 40 interviews, looked into more than 50 account books and made more than 100 photocopies of documents. With a large amount of evidence quickly obtained through the investigation, the procuratorate launched a criminal investigation against Zhang after one week, and calmed down the upset villagers.

Targeted poverty alleviation must ensure all funds are truly delivered to where they’re aimed at. The government has designed a series of financial incentives for farmers. These funds are regarded by the people as a heartwarming move. However, some grassroots level officials shall intercept or deduct money from these funds using their power. As an important anti-corruption tool, it’s the procuratorate’s job to make sure the funds are truthfully delivered, prevent duty-related crimes in agricultural poverty alleviation and punish those found guilty with a strong hand.

The numbers have proved the watchdog has indeed performed its duty. According to statistics from the Supreme People’s Procuratorate, a total of 35,240 people were investigated and punished from 2013 to 2015 due to duty-related crimes in agricultural poverty alleviation, accounting for 22.3 percent of all people found guilty by the watchdog in the same period. A total of 10,769 people were found guilty just in the first 10 months of 2015. Of those, 827 people were found guilty in poverty alleviation and development work, while 9,942 were found guilty in agricultural poverty alleviation work.