Central Commission for Discipline Inspection Office Report: Strictly Control the "Top Leaders" of Secondary Units Group Companies | Enterprises | Top Leaders
"Even today, I still regret it." In the detention center of the Jilin Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection and Supervision, a man dressed in gray and nearing sixty years old burst into tears. He was Shen Gang, former full-time director of China Datang Group Jiangsu Power Generation Co., Ltd. and Anhui Power Generation Co., Ltd. From a technician in the workshop of Xiahuayuan Power Plant to the "leader" of several second and third level enterprises under China Datang Group, Shen Gang eventually became a detained object in the interrogation room. He regretted, "I don't want anyone to repeat this life ending."
Previously, the disciplinary inspection and supervision team of Datang in China received reports from Shen Gang that he had accepted bribes from suppliers, and conducted preliminary verification of relevant issues and clues. In November 2022, Shen Gang was subjected to disciplinary review by the China Datang Discipline Inspection and Supervision Group and investigation by the Jilin Provincial Supervision Commission on suspicion of serious violations of discipline and law. After investigation, Shen Gang not only illegally received huge amounts of funds from private enterprise owners and was suspected of bribery, but also engaged in violations of organizational discipline, integrity discipline, and life discipline. In May 2023, Shen Gang was expelled from the Party and public office, and his suspected criminal issues were transferred to the procuratorial organs for legal review and prosecution.
Long term use of power to intervene in equipment procurement bidding work, with large amounts of violations of discipline and law, and involvement of many bribery personnel, is a typical case in recent years investigated and dealt with by Datang in China
On a long conference table, 70 transferred case files were arranged in sequence according to their numbers, and Shen Gang's experiences over the years were condensed into these case files.
Wang Ying, a member of the Party Group and leader of the Discipline Inspection and Supervision Group of China Datang, told reporters that the Shen Gang case is quite typical among the cases investigated and dealt with by China Datang in recent years: "Although the means of long-term intervention in equipment bidding and material procurement, as well as contracting projects for others, are not sophisticated, the duration of disciplinary and illegal activities is long, the amount of disciplinary and illegal activities is large, involving private enterprises and many bribery personnel, and it is a typical case of 'relying on enterprises to eat enterprises'."
The starting point of Shen Gang's corruption and corruption can be traced back to nearly 20 years ago. In 2004, Shen Gang was appointed as the Chief Engineer and Deputy General Manager of a power plant in Datang. In the same year, the power plant purchased equipment worth tens of millions of yuan from a private enterprise. Although Shen Gang did not participate in the bidding, he still received 100000 yuan in cash from the company owner, aiming to lay the foundation for future cooperation.
The first time I received so much unexpected wealth, I was extremely nervous and afraid of being caught by others. I left the money in the office for a long time, but gradually realized it was nothing. The "pie" falling from the sky made Shen Gang have a misconception that power is not only the foundation of doing things and starting a business, but also a "good opportunity" to get rich, and thus embarked on an irreversible path of power money trading.
"Willing to be hunted and actively engaging in activities is the biggest characteristic of Shen Gang," said Wang Encheng, the head of the 15th Review and Investigation Office of the Jilin Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection and Supervision. With the promotion of his position and changes in his work environment, Shen Gang not only frequently helps business owners contract projects to gain benefits, but also believes that "these benefits are earned through labor". With peace of mind, he has turned being an official into a platform for personal gain.
Among numerous private bosses, Wu has a close relationship with Shen Gang. In early 2013, upon hearing that a certain power plant was preparing to build a new office building, Wu had the idea of borrowing the qualifications of other companies to undertake the project. After contacting the then director of the power plant, Shen Gang, the two hit it off immediately. Afterwards, Shen Gang not only illegally disclosed the information of other participating bidding companies to Wu, but also instructed his subordinates to modify and improve the information for Wu to gain bidding advantages, and promised to help coordinate the contract signing, project progress, and payment settlement after winning the bid. In August 2016, a construction company affiliated with Wu successfully won the bid, while Shen Gang received a yellow cardboard box containing 10 bundles of RMB, totaling 1 million yuan.
The reporter learned that power plants are technology intensive enterprises with high levels of automation and complex control systems. They have very strict requirements for the precision of various equipment, such as thermal instruments. There are only a few qualified suppliers nationwide. "In theory, the product quality, technical standards, market prices, supply capacity, and other information of thermal instrument suppliers are very transparent, making it relatively easy to choose. However, Shen Gang used his advantage of being familiar with business and understanding rules to repeatedly help companies with interests to exploit loopholes and demand benefits." said Ma Chao, a cadre of the 15th Review and Investigation Office of the Jilin Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection and Supervision.
Shen Gang, who comes from a professional technical background, has a much better understanding of power plant equipment than others. The investigators revealed a detail to the reporter: during the investigation process, whenever there was a mismatch between the recipient and the briber, he would restore the scene by recalling the model and quantity of the purchased equipment. In sharp contrast, there is a nearly blank concept of discipline and law - for many years, Shen Gang has never fully studied party discipline and rules, and there are no relevant books at home. He treats theoretical learning in a formalistic and perfunctory manner, believing that "once the notebook is combined, it has nothing to do with me.".
"The collapse of ideals and beliefs, and the anchoring of thoughts are the fundamental reasons why Shen Gang repeatedly broke through the bottom line." Chen Simin, the director of the Second Discipline Inspection and Supervision Office of the Discipline Inspection and Supervision Group of the Tang Dynasty in China, said that after forgetting his identity as a party member and cadre, Shen Gang allowed his desires to grow, from being hesitant to gradually becoming numb, accepting everything from tens of thousands of yuan to millions of yuan, ultimately becoming trapped in a cocoon and being captured by money.
Away from organizational constraints, break away from family constraints, and relax self-restraint, the issue of state-owned enterprises dispatching "leaders" for supervision should be taken seriously
In addition to being suspected of bribery, Shen Gang also has the problem of illegally operating businesses. According to the data, a private company frequently won the bid for Datang Group's system enterprise procurement business from September 2007 to December 2020, with an average settlement amount of over 100000 yuan per transaction. The largest shareholder of the company at the time of its establishment was Shen Gang.
The investigation and handling of the Shen Gang case has triggered the reflection of the disciplinary inspection and supervision team of the Tang Dynasty in China on the supervision and management of dispatched leaders from central enterprises. A cadre of the disciplinary inspection and supervision team told reporters that the communication and appointment of "leaders" in subordinate units is a requirement of enterprise management. Although the group company has introduced many system regulations around "leader" supervision, the reality is that some cadres work in other places all year round, and the problem of distant supervision from superiors and soft supervision from peers still exists, which must be vigorously rectified.
"From the state-owned enterprise cases we have investigated and dealt with, it can be seen that many large enterprises are well managed at the group headquarters level, and the construction of party conduct and clean governance in various departments is also relatively solid. However, there is often varying degrees of weakening in second - and third level companies. In addition, some dispatched cadres themselves say that they have deviated from the constraints of the organization and family, and relaxed their own constraints, which is very dangerous." said a cadre of the Jilin Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection and Supervision.
Taking Shen Gang as an example, during his more than 8 years of overseas employment, he often exchanged cups with business owners, disregarding family reminders and warnings. His corrupt work style accelerated the process of corruption. "The workplace and positions have changed time and time again, and the business owners around us have also changed one batch after another. They are both 'friends' who eat, drink, and have fun together, and they are also bound together as interest partners," said the investigators.
"We have heard of these situations before," Ma Chao said. Since the establishment of the special task force, the Discipline Inspection and Supervision Group of Datang in China has drawn nearly 10 backbone personnel from the system to provide daily supervision and information obtained during the initial audit. They have also participated in the entire investigation of the special task force and collaborated to carry out external investigation and evidence collection work in Beijing, Shanghai, Hainan, Fujian and other places. They have supplemented the retrieval of contract texts, fund transaction vouchers, and other materials for 84 engineering projects between 7 units under the group and the involved private enterprise owners. The synergy formed by the collaboration between the organization and the location has accelerated the process of investigating and handling cases.
During the process of handling the case, a comrade from the Discipline Inspection and Supervision Group of China Datang provided feedback on a situation: after Shen Gang was transferred to a full-time director, the leaders of the group company approached him for a conversation. During the waiting period, Shen Gang appeared very uneasy. When he found out that the leader was talking to him about job adjustments, he actually relaxed completely. "Although the job adjustment was a big deal, he didn't take it seriously, which reflects that this cadre may be under more serious pressure in his heart. Taking this as a breakthrough, we formulated a 'right path' conversation plan. On the fourth day of being detained, Shen Gang began to explain his disciplinary and illegal issues." The investigators said.
Getting Shen Gang off guard is just the first step, and the biggest challenge of the case lies in how to recover the key briber Wu who fled to the United States. "We couldn't get through the phone and didn't respond to messages, but we didn't want to give up. On the one hand, Wu played a crucial role in the case, and his transactions with Shen Gang were all in cash without any other evidence, making it difficult to determine a crime committed by taking advantage of his position without a confession from the bribing party. On the other hand, we couldn't promote this culture of running away as soon as he committed a crime." The investigators told reporters that the special task force followed the idea of "cutting off his back and giving him a way out". While controlling Wu's related assets in accordance with regulations and laws, they sent a working group to Guangzhou to contact his brother-in-law and had dozens of phone conversations, discussing policies and reasoning. In the end, with Wu returning to China and bringing him to justice, the Shen Gang case formed a tight chain of evidence.
Deepen the reform of the material procurement system and mechanism, establish a blacklist of defective suppliers, and use a combination of methods to promote effective improvement through case studies
"The group company has clear requirements for the division of labor of the 'leader', but in the decision-making process of the enterprise, there is often a problem of 'no formal division of responsibilities, no actual delegation of power'. This handwritten material titled 'How to do a good job in supervising the' leader 'is written by Shen Gang during the detention period, combining his experience in various enterprises of Datang.".
When the Shen Gang case was still in the investigation stage, the disciplinary inspection and supervision team of the Tang Dynasty in China began to synchronously plan the work of promoting reform through the case, urging Shen Gang to start from a profound analysis of himself and assist in exploring loopholes in the supervision of the group company's "top leaders" in subordinate enterprises. According to the introduction of officials from the Discipline Inspection and Supervision Group of the Tang Dynasty in China, Shen Gang proposed eight suggestions in this material, including limiting the time limit for "top leaders" to serve in the same enterprise, increasing audit and inspection supervision, and strictly controlling the selection and appointment of cadres. Many of these suggestions are also of concern to the Discipline Inspection and Supervision Group.
"For example, in terms of personnel selection and appointment, this case reflects that the group company still has the problem of lax supervision, especially the lack of in-depth and detailed understanding of the political quality, work style, and conduct of cadres, which has led to individual cadres being 'promoted' while being corrupt," said Wang Ying.
From the perspective of enterprise management, the Discipline Inspection and Supervision Group of Datang in China has noticed a characteristic - the group company has a specialized hierarchical classification system for bidding and procurement, and purchases of a certain amount or more are carried out at the group company level. The bidding process is more complex and the chain is longer, while the rest are delegated to subsidiary enterprises for bidding. As a regular cadre in a second level unit, Shen Gang has limited influence on the first level targets, but for some second and third level targets, he can easily handle them with just a greeting. Under the intervention of the "top leader", the seemingly tight system and system have lost their effectiveness.
How can we better supervise and constrain power? Based on the Shen Gang case, the Tang Dynasty Party Group in China launched a set of rectification "combination punches". Firstly, it is necessary to deepen the reform of the material procurement system and mechanism. In response to the situation where subordinate material companies act as both athletes and judges in the procurement process, the group company has established a specialized material and procurement supervision department responsible for procurement supervision, promoting the construction of "digitalization" and eliminating the problem of "separation of management and handling". "After improving this part of the content from the management process, we can largely avoid the situation that one person has the final say and reduce the power rent-seeking space," said Guo Yang, deputy head of China Datang Discipline Inspection and Supervision Group.
Secondly, it is necessary to further strengthen the disciplinary inspection capabilities of second and third level enterprises, and promote increased supervision in key areas such as project bidding. According to the introduction of cadres from the Discipline Inspection and Supervision Group of the Tang Dynasty in China, on the one hand, the Discipline Inspection and Supervision Group conducted comprehensive job interviews with the newly appointed Secretary of the Discipline Inspection Commission to strengthen responsibilities, and regularly selected lower level discipline inspection commission personnel to exercise on special projects, improving the abilities of discipline inspection cadres through case based training; On the other hand, invite local disciplinary and supervisory commission backbone to give lectures, focusing on how to better carry out daily supervision, strengthen ideological and political work during the case handling process, and provide comprehensive guidance to disciplinary inspection cadres within the system.
At the same time, the Discipline Inspection and Supervision Group of Datang in China has put forward work suggestions from a practical perspective, assisting the group company in deepening the special governance of non-performing suppliers, sorting out the information of the bribe givers involved in the Shen Gang case, blacklisting the companies behind them, prohibiting them from cooperating with them for 3 to 5 years, prohibiting them from contracting engineering construction projects of the group company's affiliated enterprises and participating in equipment and material procurement, and releasing a deterrent effect.
Suggestions for disciplinary inspection should be tailored to the specific situation, exploring the construction of a large-scale supervision pattern for enterprises
In the Tang Dynasty of China, the work of promoting reform and governance through cases continued to advance at a deeper level.
Since June this year, the Materials and Procurement Supervision Department, Party Organization Department, and Datang International Power Generation Co., Ltd. have successively received disciplinary inspection suggestions issued by the China Datang Discipline Inspection and Supervision Group. Among them, in response to issues such as Shen Gang's use of his position to illegally assist the children of specific stakeholders in joining the company he manages, and his use of the authority of the "top leader" to first express clearly biased opinions during the procurement leadership group meeting to determine the winning bidder, the disciplinary inspection and supervision group has put forward four specific suggestions to the Party Group Organization Department, urging and strengthening the supervision of the superior Party organization on the management of leading cadres, especially the main leading cadres, strengthening the inspection of the members of the lower leadership team, especially the proposed candidates of the "top leader", and consolidating the leadership responsibilities in various aspects such as analysis, judgment and motion, democratic recommendation, examination, discussion, and decision-making. The disciplinary inspection and supervision group has comprehensively used special inspections, performance analysis, and democratic life meetings to strengthen the supervision of the eight members of the leadership teams at all levels. Supervision within and outside the hours and management of cadres for long-distance communication.
It is reported that the Party Group of Datang in China has closely monitored more than 40 "top leaders" of secondary companies, taking time during meetings and research to conduct individual conversations, comprehensively understanding personal and team situations, and promptly identifying potential problems. The disciplinary inspection and supervision team strengthens the supervision of these personnel through various measures, and supervises and guides the disciplinary commission secretaries at all levels to carry out peer supervision. They regularly submit political portraits of their team members to the group company. In Datang, a company with more than 90000 employees and more than 800 billion yuan in assets, a responsibility system of level by level and layer by layer supervision has been established.
The discipline inspection and supervision team of the Tang Dynasty in China has also conducted in-depth thinking on how to further improve the supervision system. "Shen Gang's problems mostly occur in key business areas, and managing these areas relies on a complete set of production and operation management systems of the enterprise. This requires a joint effort between internal party supervision and functional supervision from departments such as audit, legal, risk control, and material procurement supervision to ensure that the systems are implemented without compromise. However, there is still a gap to truly achieve information exchange, resource sharing, and achievement sharing." Wang Ying told reporters that in response to this situation, the disciplinary inspection and supervision team has led a survey to explore the construction of a large-scale supervision pattern that is in line with the characteristics of the enterprise and effectively integrate various supervisory forces. The Party group of the group has also issued the Implementation Opinions on Promoting the Construction of the "Great Supervision" System. In addition, for situations that need to be transferred to other departments, such as non-compliance in personnel selection and appointment transferred to the Party Organization Department and non-standard bidding transferred to the Materials and Procurement Supervision Department, the Discipline Inspection and Supervision Group plans to strengthen communication and follow up to understand the handling situation, promote the formation of a work loop, and avoid "one turn".
The overturning of the preceding car is a lesson for the following car. "Strictly managing the 'top leaders' of secondary enterprises is a key measure for the Party group of the group company to strengthen the constraint and supervision of power operation, and also an important measure to promote comprehensive and strict governance of the Party." Zou Lei, Secretary and Chairman of the Party group of China Datang, said, "The Party group of the group company firmly supports the disciplinary inspection and supervision team's investigation and handling of cases. After the dust of the Shen Gang case is settled, we will conduct a comprehensive analysis of the case, shoot a special warning education film, and carry out warning education throughout the system. In addition to promoting reform through cases, we need to further increase the investigation and handling of cases. Since 2022, the disciplinary inspection and supervision team has investigated six detention cases in a row, and through unremitting efforts, we will continue to purify the political environment of the group company. Ecology, constantly forming a good environment for clean and upright work and entrepreneurship
