Economic Observer Network Reporter Tian Guobao Han Yuefeng is glad that he has won many qualifications in the field of construction engineering through study and examination during his work. After being laid off by a well-known real estate company in 2022, the income generated by these qualifications has become an important guarantee for maintaining his daily living expenses.
Certificate affiliation, commonly known as "hanging certificate", refers to the behavior of individuals attaching their qualification certificates to the name of non-working enterprises in order to obtain remuneration, which is expressly prohibited by the Administrative Licensing Law, the Construction Law and the Bidding and Bidding Law.
In 2018, the sixth inspection team of the State Council emphasized that the phenomenon of "hanging certificates" brings serious hidden dangers to the quality and safety of the project. Effectively increase the intensity of regulatory penalties, increase the cost of violations of laws and regulations, cut off the chain of interests behind the hanging of certificates, and form a deterrent effect of "individuals are prohibited from entering illegal industries, and enterprises are endangered by illegal activities"; accelerate the application of information-based supervision methods to improve the quality and efficiency of supervision; Improve relevant systems and regulations, and fundamentally eliminate policy gaps in illegal acts.
However, to this day, the phenomenon of "hanging certificates" is still widespread. Construction engineering enterprises, due to the need to apply for qualifications, bidding and contracting projects, often rent various qualification certificates from relevant holders.
Holders like Han Yuefeng had a formal job and income in the past, and the cost of hanging the certificate was just icing on the cake; With some people being laid off, the income from the certificate will even become an important source of income for some families.
textual research
After graduating from university, Han Yuefeng joined a construction state-owned enterprise and followed the project Tiannan Haibei for five years. In 2008, he left the construction company and joined a private real estate company.
When he was in a central enterprise, Han Yuefeng obtained the second-level construction engineer practice qualification, and before resigning, he obtained the first-class construction engineer practice qualification. Engaged in the construction industry for many years, Han Yuefeng knows a lot of friends in the industry, and when he left the central enterprise, a friend who does engineering proposed to use his construction engineer certificate.
Han Yuefeng's construction engineer certificate is initially registered in a state-owned construction company, and if you want to be linked to a friend's construction company, you need to go through a change of registration. Han Yuefeng told the Economic Observer that the initial registration is more complicated and there is a risk of not being able to get through; Once the initial registration is approved, it is easier to change the registration and renew the registration in the future.
After negotiation, the initial use cycle is three years, with an annual cost of 20,000 yuan and an annual payment. Under normal circumstances, the user unit will give a part of the deposit first, and then pay the fee for one year after the change of registration is approved. In some places, social security is also required to be paid for the certificate holder, and the cost is borne by the certificate user.
After working in a real estate company, Han Yuefeng's daily work no longer requires a first-class construction engineer qualification certificate, and the construction company hanging on to a friend can get additional income, although these incomes are not much compared with work income, but there is no need to pay extra, and the actual risk is controllable.
At the end of 2008, Han Yuefeng got married, and his wife never went out to work. He encouraged his wife to study for some qualifications in the field of construction engineering through self-study.
Han Yuefeng's wife is a top student, and she was an expert in exams when she was in school. In 2012, when the child went to kindergarten and his wife was free, he began to study and prepare for the exam, and in 2013, he got the cost engineer qualification certificate.
Han Yuefeng is engaged in cost-related work in real estate enterprises, and occasionally takes on some private work. After his wife passed the qualification certificate, some private work was handed over to his wife first, and then he further improved. The cooperation between the couple continued until the birth of their second child in 2015.
Since then, because of his busy work and increased family affairs, Han Yuefeng gradually stopped taking private jobs. He asked a friend to hang out his wife's cost engineer qualification certificate, charging 30,000 yuan a year. In the field of construction engineering, the cost engineer qualification certificate has a higher gold content than the builder.
Over the years, Han Yuefeng's scope of application of the construction engineer certificate has been expanding, in addition to the construction engineering major, he has successively passed the municipal, electromechanical, communications, electric power and other majors, each major for different fields, the cost of hanging the certificate is also different, the general price is 20,000 yuan - 40,000 yuan.
By 2021, Han Yuefeng got the qualification certificate of supervision engineer, and his wife got the qualification certificates of first-class cost engineer and mechanical and electrical engineer, and the annual income of various qualification certificates hung out by the two of them is about 100,000 yuan. Since the qualification certificate of the same holder can only be hung in the name of the same company, for example, few companies need both the construction engineer and the supervision certificate at the same time, which also affects the income of Han Yuefeng and his wife.
Hang the card
In the field of construction engineering, there are many qualifications. In terms of categories, there are more than a dozen categories such as utility engineers, electrical engineers, civil engineers, registered structural engineers, registered architects, registered builders, cost engineers, supervision engineers, and registered consulting engineers, and each category is divided into different specialties.
Taking construction engineers as an example, there were originally 12 majors, but after merger in 2023, there are still 10 fields such as construction engineering, highways, railways, ports and shipping, electric power, and communications. Some builders who have been in the industry for many years have already achieved customs clearance on the construction qualification certificate.
The qualification standards of construction engineering companies are divided into four levels, such as special grade, first grade, second level and third grade, and different levels of construction companies can obtain projects of different volumes, total contracted amounts, and building heights, and the requirements for the allocation of various types of certified talents are also different.
For example, a construction engineering company with first-class qualification requires a total of no less than 12 first-class registered constructors with construction engineering and mechanical and electrical engineering, including no less than 9 first-class registered constructors in construction engineering, and construction companies with special qualification and second-level qualification also have corresponding requirements for the number of registered constructors.
If the construction engineering company wants to obtain a larger order, it needs to upgrade the qualification standard, which also requires a certain number of qualified personnel, and the cost of hanging the certificate is much lower than directly hiring qualified employees, which is also one of the important reasons why the construction industry is more common.
According to a number of people in the construction field, most of the certificates are needed to meet the company's qualification standards.
The certificate for the qualification standard review service of the construction company is also known as the "hanging company", in the behavior of the company, the holder almost does not bear the actual risk, does not involve the seal. The cost is generally 20,000-30,000 yuan a year. According to the requirements, a construction engineering company with a first-class qualification needs at least 9 first-class registered constructors, "but what if there are only 5?" The rest is solved by hanging a certificate", a construction company official told the Economic Observer.
Under normal circumstances, the project manager of a construction project department must be a registered constructor, but in the actual construction process, because some project managers do not have relevant qualification certificates, a holder is required to serve as the nominal project manager, and there is a situation of hanging the project.
A person who has been engaged in construction project contracting for a long time told the Economic Observer that the project is also divided into two situations, one is to hang a certificate and a seal, and the other is to only hang a certificate without a seal. The actual risk responsibility of the two situations is different, and the cost is also different, and the annual license fee for some projects can reach about 80,000 yuan, and some projects can even exceed 100,000 yuan.
A large number of construction projects exist in private construction engineering enterprises, such construction companies are generally established by relatives and friends or a few fellow villagers, some people have a low level of education, can not get the construction engineer certificate, but do not worry about handing over the project to the person holding the certificate, so they will find the person holding the certificate to be the nominal project manager.
During the period, if the holder needs to hold a meeting or come forward, the construction company that hangs the certificate not only needs to bear the travel expenses of the holder, but also needs to give the holder about 1,000 yuan of hardship. Han Yuefeng said that his builder's certificate was originally hung in a company in Hainan, and the cost of each round trip was tens of thousands of yuan.
The price of the certificate of the builder in different fields is also different, Han Yuefeng introduced, the certificate fee for municipal and port and shipping majors is relatively high, which can reach about 40,000 yuan a year, and most of the other fields are about 20,000 yuan. The cost engineer's certificate fee is about 30,000 yuan a year, and the supervision is generally about 10,000 yuan.
"Central enterprises and state-owned enterprises do not need to be licensed, because there are more employees with certificates. Similarly, some large private enterprises do not need to be licensed. The above-mentioned person who has been engaged in construction project contracting for a long time said that most of the local small and medium-sized construction companies are licensed, and some of them are not directly engaged in construction engineering business, but only play a subcontracting role.
"Hang the certificate" for a living
After the Spring Festival in 2022, Han Yuefeng's company began to lay off employees, and he was older and became the first batch of employees to be laid off, and left after receiving a large amount of compensation.
Han Yuefeng introduced that most of the people who study architecture have a research complex, especially after graduating from construction, real estate and other related fields, everyone has a lot of certificates in their hands, and there is no shortage of people who have cleared customs and obtained 10 certificates for builders.
After 20 years of work, Han Yuefeng has obtained four certificates for construction engineer and two certificates for supervision; His wife obtained the qualifications of cost engineer and mechanical and electrical engineer. He introduced that there are strict requirements for the profession, for example, the professional qualification certificate of the construction engineer cannot be obtained if the background of the law major.
With the qualification certificate, after participating in the work for a certain number of years, you can apply for a registered engineer or constructor. Normally, the scope of practice of the second-level certificate is in the province, and the first-level certificate can be practiced nationwide.
At present, Han Yuefeng and his wife have a total of 4 qualification certificates hanging outside. After losing his job, he tried other industries and even worked for a construction company for a month, but eventually gave up because he was not satisfied.
After resting completely, Han Yuefeng relied on these qualifications to maintain the necessary expenses for his life.
Han Yuefeng is about to run for five, if he can work normally until retirement, all the expenses of his son and daughter are not too much pressure, but now he is unemployed, and there is little hope of reemployment, he doesn't know how to earn more money in the next ten years to maintain his children until they graduate from college.
(At the request of the interviewee, Han Yuefeng is a pseudonym)