Discipline Inspection Column丨Unveil the invisibility cloak of public-funded tourism

Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at the core has incorporated the comprehensive and strict governance of the Party into the "four comprehensive" strategic layout, starting from the formulation and implementation of the eight provisions of the Central Committee.

The Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Commission for Discipline Inspection required that the phenomenon of invisible mutation be effectively prevented, and that the problems of "express gifts" and public funds tourism in the name of training and inspection and party building activities should be accurately discovered and strictly handled. Publicly-funded tourism is one of the typical problems that violate the spirit of the eight central regulations. Discipline inspection and supervision organs at all levels pay close attention to the characteristics and laws of the problem of publicly-funded tourism, adhere to the integrated investigation and treatment of corruption, and systematically deal with it, and constantly promote the in-depth development of work style construction.

Publicly-funded tourism is becoming more and more hidden, and problems such as "backdoor tours", "by-the-way tours" and "hitchhiking tours" occur from time to time

In recent years, all localities have continued to deepen the implementation of the spirit of the eight provisions of the Central Committee and its implementation rules, and the problem of publicly-funded tourism has been effectively curbed, but individual party members and cadres have violated discipline against the wind, exploited loopholes, and made changes to public-funded tourism. According to the data, from January to May 2024, a total of 933 cases of publicly-funded tourism and illegal acceptance of management and service objects were investigated and dealt with across the country, and 1,357 people were criticized, educated and dealt with, of which 1,046 were punished by party discipline and government affairs.

Judging from the investigation and handling of problems, the behavior of public-funded tourism is becoming more and more hidden, and the problem of invisible mutation is frequent.

Some of them are thinking about "backdoor tours", in order to enter the scenic spots, and travel with signboard public funds such as "excellent traditional culture education" and "red education". For example, since 2020, the CPPCC of Qiongzhong Li and Miao Autonomous County in Hainan Province and the CPPCC of Baoting Li and Miao Autonomous County have successively held 4 training courses in the name of party history learning and education, ideal and belief education and training, and organized cadres to travel to Guangxi, Chongqing, Shandong, Guizhou and other places at public expense; The Baoting County People's Congress held two training courses, and organized cadres to travel to Fujian, Henan and other places at public expense in the name of training to improve their ability to perform their duties; The CPPCC of Baoting County organized cadres to travel to Guangxi, Sichuan and other places in disguised public funds in the name of rural cultural tourism construction inspection activities. A total of 392 people from the two counties participated, and 2.185 million yuan of financial funds were spent, of which more than 700,000 yuan were spent on tourism, which caused a bad impact. In the end, the Hainan Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection and Supervision seriously dealt with the 32 leading cadres involved in the case, of which 9 were put on file for review and investigation.

Some people play with their hearts on the "way-by-the-way", and extend unnecessary official trips by arriving early and postponing their returns, deliberately freeing up more energy and time for travel. For example, from May 11 to 13, 2023, Li Xiaoliu, member of the Party Committee and vice president of Tangshan Preschool Normal College in Hebei Province, and others changed their official itinerary and drove an official car to visit a scenic spot during their research and exchange in other places. In November 2023, Li Xiaoliu was punished with a warning from the party.

Some of them do everything possible to "take a ride" and take advantage of the opportunity to participate in official business such as study and training, investigation and research, "carry private goods", travel with relatives and friends, and use public funds to reimburse other people's travel expenses. For example, from 2021 to June 2022, Zeng Defu, member of the Party branch and director of the Village Affairs Supervision Committee of Shanwei Village, Ruixi Town, Chengmai County, Hainan Province, Wu Xiaojian, member of the village committee, and Lin Mei, member of the village party branch, took advantage of the opportunity of the village party branch to carry out themed party day activities, and brought their family members with them in violation of regulations, and the family expenses were reimbursed by public funds. In December 2023, Zeng Defu was punished with a warning from the party; In February 2024, Wu Xiaojian was punished with a warning from the party, and Lin Mei was admonished.

Pay close attention to the problems of lax discipline and lax work style exposed by publicly-funded tourism, tighten and consolidate responsibilities, and strengthen reminders and warnings

On the one hand, it reflects that a small number of party members and cadres are not strict with their own requirements and have a serious luck mentality, and on the other hand, it also exposes the lax and soft management of the party by a small number of units, the lax discipline and work style, and the lack of strict audit and responsibility for the document basis, business trip personnel, time, place and expense reimbursement of official travel.

Discipline inspection and supervision organs at all levels pay attention to tightening and consolidating the main responsibility and supervision responsibility, conscientiously fulfill the supervision responsibility, and make concerted efforts to prevent the occurrence of public funds tourism problems.

Keeping an eye on the implementation of the main responsibility, the main responsible comrades of the Hebei Provincial Party Committee have emphasized the boycott of publicly-funded tourism at important meetings many times, requiring strict investigation of violations of discipline and continuous consolidation of achievements in the construction of work style. Party committees (Party groups) at all levels conscientiously fulfill the main responsibility of comprehensively and strictly administering the Party, and earnestly strengthen the education, management, and supervision of Party members and cadres. The Hainan Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection and Supervision urged the party committees (party groups) at all levels to put the rectification of public funds and tourism work in a prominent position as an important task of comprehensively and strictly governing the party, and earnestly fulfill the main responsibility for the construction of work style.

Focusing on the consolidation of regulatory responsibilities, the Hainan Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection and Supervision urged the financial, cultural and tourism, organ affairs administration and other functional departments to carry out special inspections within the scope of their duties, comprehensively use budget accounts, economic responsibility audits, verification bills and other forms to accurately discover problems, and transfer relevant problem clues to the discipline inspection and supervision organs for processing. The Yunnan Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection and Supervision urges the relevant functional departments to take responsibility for supervision, and promptly deal with and correct the signs of disguised public funds tourism in the name of training and inspection.

Implement supervision responsibilities, discipline inspection and supervision organs at all levels strengthen reminders and reminders, supervise the implementation of the pre-reporting system, and guide party members and cadres to tighten the ideological strings at all times and build a strong line of defense for work style. The Hebei Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection and Supervision formulated the "Work Plan on Resolutely Preventing and Rectifying the "Four Winds" Problems in Investigation and Inspection, requiring provincial units to go out to carry out research and supervision, supervision and inspection, study and training, and must report to the provincial discipline inspection and supervision team. The Kunming Municipal Commission for Discipline Inspection and Supervision of Yunnan Province publicly reported three typical problems of accepting travel arrangements in violation of regulations, and required party organizations at all levels in the city to do a good job in the construction of work style, strengthen the study and education of party discipline, and earnestly show a strict attitude, set up strict standards, and implement strict discipline.

Grasp the characteristics of the law, innovative means of supervision, the problem of public funds tourism to the end, not an inch

Publicly-funded tourism has seriously damaged the seriousness of public affairs and damaged the image of the party and the government in the eyes of the masses.

Keeping an eye on the characteristics and laws of publicly-funded tourism, the Hebei Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection and Supervision has carefully studied and analyzed, summarized and summarized in a timely manner, formulated and issued the "Measures for Strengthening the Supervision and Inspection of the Implementation of the Spirit of the Eight Provisions of the Central Committee", and guided the discipline inspection and supervision organs at all levels to accurately grasp the phased characteristics of the integration of public-funded tourism, and in-depth investigation and severe punishment of all kinds of makeovers and invisible mutations.

"Through the investigation and handling of cases, supervision and inspection of the problem of public money tourism, we carefully study and judge the characteristics of the law, analyze the main situation of public money tourism such as 'backdoor tour', 'detour tour' and 'incidental tour', and summarize the five elements of 'staring at food, housing, transportation, events, and travel, and strictly investigate public money tourism', which provides reference for the province to carry out special rectification of public money tourism or disguised public money tourism." The relevant responsible comrades of the Party Style and Government Supervision Office of the Yunnan Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection and Supervision introduced.

At present, some publicly-funded tourism stealth mutations, on the surface, the approval procedures are complete, the reimbursement procedures are standardized, and it is difficult to find by a single means of supervision. The key to solving the problem of "difficulty in finding" invisible mutation of public funds tourism lies in multi-channel and all-round investigation and excavation of problem clues.

"We have done a good job of data collision through multiple information platforms such as the integrated budget management platform, the provincial network information platform for official vehicles, the 12345 hotline platform, and the audit and rectification platform, and focused on screening and verifying whether the budget for official business trips is compliant, whether the use of funds is consistent with the budget, and whether there is a travel track in popular tourist cities during bus holidays." According to the relevant responsible comrades of the Hainan Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection and Supervision of the Party Style and Government Supervision Office, the relevant offices of the Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection and Supervision have initiated the handling of suspected problems through the supervision module of the "Supervision Network" platform developed by the Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection and Supervision, and strictly investigated public funds for tourism.

In addition to the use of big data supervision, discipline inspection and supervision organs accurately discover problems through the power of supervision. For example, the Hebei Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection and Supervision, together with the organization, finance, organ affairs management and other departments, pay close attention to the document basis, work plan, reimbursement bills, actual routes, and the implementation of regulatory responsibilities, etc., and accurately discover the problem of public money tourism.

Organizing travel at public expense in the name of training, accepting and providing travel and other activities that may affect the fair performance of official duties, may also involve corruption. Discipline inspection and supervision organs at all levels have a profound grasp of the internal law of corruption and strictly investigate the conspicuous problems of corruption and work style.

Adhering to the principle of "investigating corruption by the wind", the Hebei Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection and Supervision has dug deep into whether there are problems such as benefit transfer and power-for-money transactions by checking the source of reimbursement, the number of training days, the actual route, and the official itinerary by checking the details of the management and the arrangement of tourism activities of the service objects.

Deepening the "rectification of the style by corruption", the Yunnan Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection and Supervision followed the line to dig deep and thoroughly investigate the problem of some units of the transportation system in Yunnan Province organizing publicly-funded tourism in the name of training, and held 3 party organizations and 121 responsible persons accountable, of which 11 were given party discipline and government sanctions, and 1.096 million yuan of disciplinary violations were recovered.

Strengthen source control, promote system governance, and build a strong ideological line of defense against publicly-funded tourism

It is forbidden to travel at public expense, and there are clear provisions in party discipline and state law.

Article 115 of the Regulations on Disciplinary Actions of the Communist Party of China clearly states that those directly responsible and those with leadership responsibility shall be given warnings or serious warnings if the circumstances are relatively minor; where the circumstances are more serious, sanctions of removal from internal Party positions or Party probation are to be given; where the circumstances are serious, they are to be expelled from the Party.

The "Law of the People's Republic of China on Governmental Sanctions for Public Employees", "Several Provisions on the Honest Practice of Leaders of State-Owned Enterprises", and "Provisions on Sanctions for Personnel of Public Institutions" are linked to Party discipline provisions, prohibiting state public employees, leaders of state-owned enterprises, and staff of public institutions from traveling with public funds or using public funds in disguised form to travel. The "Regulations on Strict Economy and Opposition to Waste in Party and Government Organs", "Measures for the Management of Travel Expenses of Central and State Organs", and "Measures for the Management of Training Expenses of Central and State Organs" have made provisions on the strict prohibition of travel at public expense, and tightened the cage of the dense system.

Focusing on the outstanding problems such as false reimbursement, apportionment of expenses, and improper performance of duties exposed by the problem of invisible mutation of public funds for tourism, discipline inspection and supervision organs at all levels have carried out special rectification, supervised the establishment of rules and regulations, and strengthened source control.

The Yunnan Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection and Supervision has carried out special rectification of issues such as publicly-funded tourism or disguised public-funded tourism in the province, and urged all departments at all levels to carry out and participate in the training in the past three years, especially the out-of-town training, and the province's departments at all levels have found 4,487 problems in their self-examination. In response to the problems found, the provincial discipline inspection commissions and supervision commissions at all levels urged the competent departments of the industry and the units where the problems were located to make rectifications, and promptly collected funds in violation of rules and disciplines to ensure that the rectification work was effective.

Starting from plugging the loopholes in the system and improving the long-term mechanism for the construction of work style, the Hainan Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection and Supervision and the Organization Department of the Provincial Party Committee jointly issued the "Notice on Thoroughly Implementing the Spirit of the Eight Provisions of the Central Committee and Further Strengthening the Management of Training and Inspection", urging the organization, personnel, finance, auditing and other departments at all levels to strengthen the overall planning and control of inspection and training activities, and strictly implement the approval system for official business trips, training and inspection, and financial systems such as budget, expenditure, use, and write-off, so as to curb the signs of publicly-funded tourism from the source.

Efforts should be made to strengthen daily education and guide party members and cadres to consolidate their roots and cultivate their roots ideologically. The Hainan Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection and Supervision printed the "70 Negative List of Requirements Related to the Spirit of the Eight Provisions of the Central Committee" and "Typical Cases of Violations of the Spirit of the Eight Provisions of the Central Committee" and other "pocket books" that are easy to carry and read, and issued them to the party committees (party groups) of all cities, counties and units directly under the provincial government, respectively, from the "conference activities", "official business trips" and "official visits" that are prone to the problem of public funds for tourism, and include relevant cases, and use typical cases to alert party members and cadres.

The Hebei Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection and Supervision took the opportunity of carrying out party discipline study and education, insisted on ideological education, educated and guided party members and cadres to strengthen self-discipline, and built a strong ideological line of defense against publicly-funded tourism. On websites, WeChat public accounts and other platforms, in the form of rambling party discipline, micro-films, etc., publicize and interpret violations of rules and disciplines such as "backdoor tours" under the name of "backdoor tours", "incidental tours" by changing itineraries, "hitchhiking tours" by increasing the number of people, and "public power tours" by passing on expenses, and guide party members and cadres to clarify policy boundaries and discipline regulations, and engrave compliance with rules and disciplines in their hearts.