At a time when party and government organs are taking the lead in living a tight life, the official reception ledger is like a mirror, reflecting the side of grassroots work and the bitterness of grassroots cadres. Recently, during interviews in some districts and counties, many grassroots cadres poured out the "bitter water" of official receptions to reporters.
How much do you know about grassroots inspections?
The logistics service center of a county organ in the west is responsible for the reception of major official activities in the county. The official reception ledger in 2023 shows that the total number of official receptions that year is more than 270, and the total cost of official reception is more than 820,000 yuan. From the perspective of the content of official activities, the number of activities to meet the inspection of superiors and research ranks high.
A total of 98 official activities included inspections, supervision, assessments, guidance, evaluations and other key words to welcome the inspection of superiors, accounting for about 35% of the total number of official receptions; A total of 89 official activities included "research and inspection", accounting for about 32% of the total number of official receptions.
Comics/Zhang Yongwen
The reporter saw on the reception ledger that the 98 official activities of greeting the higher authorities basically covered more than 30 specific tasks, such as eliminating pornography and fighting illegal publications, industrial development, food security, food safety, flood prevention and disaster reduction, cultivated land protection, environmental protection, rural revitalization, confidentiality inspection, petition and stability maintenance, business environment construction, drug control, financial risk prevention and control, forest fire prevention, drought prevention and water conservation, etc.
A person in charge of the county said: "In some jobs, the higher-level departments have to come to supervise and inspect several times a year, and each time a bunch of people come, and the heads of the relevant departments of the county and township have to accompany and receive them. ”
A town in southwest China is close to the exit of the expressway, and it is the most developed area of the local industry, which belongs to the local "star township". The town is the preferred township in the local area whenever there is a spot check on important rural revitalization work, investment promotion work, and industrial park construction research.
In 2022, the town will spend more than 20 yuan on official reception, receiving more than 540 batches and more than 3,300 people. About 60 percent of the town's official reception came from county-level departments, about 20 percent came from other townships and towns inside and outside the county to inspect and study, and about 20 percent came from provincial-level departments to inspect and supervise the work.
In order to cope with the heavy task of official reception, the town arranges almost all official reception in the town government canteen. The relevant person in charge of the town said: "Some of the people who accept official receptions will take the initiative to pay the meal fee of 30 to 40 yuan per person per meal, and we will directly put this money into the account of the canteen for the operation of the canteen." ”
How much does it cost?
In 2023, a department directly under the county government in southwest China will receive more than 300 batches of domestic official reception, more than 3,600 person-times, and the total cost of official reception will be about 300,000 yuan. If a year is calculated according to 250 working days, the bureau, as one of the most important county departments in the county, needs to receive more than 1 time per working day on average, and the average reception cost is more than 1,000 yuan per time.
"In order to implement the regulations on living a strict life and strictly economize and save expenses, the department's 'three public' expenses in 2023 will be about 400,000 yuan, a decrease of less than 10,000 yuan or 2% over the previous year, of which the official reception fee will be reduced by more than 10,000 yuan or 4% compared with the previous year." The relevant person in charge of the department said.
Compared with the relatively abundant funds for the "three publics" of the county-level departments, the expenses for official receptions in some townships and towns are particularly tight. During an interview in a town in a county in the west, the reporter learned that the town's 2023 "three public" funds are budgeted for 224,300 yuan, and the final expenditure account is 102,500 yuan, 45.7% of the budget is completed, of which the budget for official reception is 95,000 yuan, and the final expenditure account is 0.06 thousand yuan, which is 0.63% of the completed budget. A responsible person of a relevant department in the county said that one of the main reasons why the final accounts are smaller than the budgeted amount is that the financial funds for this year are tight and the "three public" funds have not been fully reimbursed.
According to the final accounts of the "three publics" of another adjacent town, the town's official reception expenses in 2021 and 2022 are both 0 yuan. "In fact, there are some official reception expenses every year, but the town government's finance can't come up with money to report the accounts, and it can't be reported in a timely manner, so it is reflected in the statement, and the reception fee is reduced to 0 yuan." The relevant person in charge of the town told reporters.
How much do you know about the reception pains?
An official reception ledger contains the "bitter water" of some grassroots workers.
Bitter 1: Anxiety about poor reception. As far as grass-roots townships and towns are concerned, most of the targets of official reception are organs and units that have the power to evaluate, and grass-roots workers are not only afraid of facing criticism for not doing their work properly, but also afraid that poor reception will lead to unobjective evaluations.
"When it comes to meals, you have to eat; If you don't get to dinner, you have to find ways to keep each other to eat. It is a good thing that the other party is willing to give face to eat, and if something goes wrong at work, you can also communicate carefully during the meal, not to make big things small, small things, just to seek an objective evaluation. A township party secretary said.
"The higher departments came down to investigate, and some brought projects and funds, and if the reception was not good, the projects that could be won might be given to others." A county official said, "If something goes wrong, I can't explain it to the county." ”
Bitter two: the embarrassment of reception costs. According to the relevant requirements of the management of business trips of Party and government organs, when staff members are on business trips at the grassroots level, they shall take the initiative to pay the meal expenses to the receiving party.
The reporter visited a number of districts and counties and learned that in the official reception included in the grassroots official reception ledger, the proportion of business travelers who took the initiative to pay for meals to the reception unit was not large, and the lower the level of the dispatched unit of the business traveler, the lower the proportion of payment.
"When the guests come, we have to be warmly entertained, even if they take the initiative to pay for the meal, we have to refuse once or twice, and only accept it when we see that the other party is really insisting; Those who don't take the initiative to give, we will never remind people to pay, and we can't erase the face at all. A county-level reception department head said.
Bitter 3: The helplessness of the reception standard. The "Provisions on the Administration of Domestic Official Receptions by Party and Government Organs" requires that local Party committees and governments at or above the county level shall, in accordance with the actual conditions of local economic development and market prices, formulate the standards for the expenditure of domestic official receptions and working meals at the same level in accordance with the local meeting meal standards.
The reporter learned in many places that many provinces have determined the standard of conference meals according to the reimbursement standard of travel expenses, that is, 30 yuan for breakfast, 40 yuan for lunch and dinner. Many cities and counties have also set meeting meal standards with reference to this standard.
"With the rise in prices, it is difficult to arrange a decent reception meal at the standard of 40 yuan per person per meal, so the county took the risk to set an official reception standard higher than that of the conference meal." A person in charge of the reception office of the county government said.
Bitter four: the number of receptions is at a loss. Many provinces have formulated regulations on official reception, requiring that the reception unit can arrange a working meal once due to work needs. However, at the grassroots level, it is difficult to implement this rule of arranging a working meal in principle.
The reporter saw on the official reception ledger of a county-level department in a county in southwest China in 2023 that 50% of the department's official receptions were more than 2 meals. Taking an organization in the province to the county for a work evaluation as an example, the guests were 4 people, and the county sent 3 people to accompany the meal, and a total of 3 meals were received, with a total cost of 1,899 yuan. "Strictly speaking, this is also non-compliant, but what can be done?" A relevant person in charge of official reception said.