Establish an investigation team, Lanzhou responds to the report from Focus Interview that "900 million public parks are not open": attach great importance to parks | projects | citizens
On the evening of July 31st, the "Focus Interview" column reported on the disposal of issues related to the Yuzhong County Citizen Park project
On the evening of July 31st, CCTV's "Focus Interview" program reported on the issue of the Yuzhong County Citizen Park project in Gansu Province. The Lanzhou Municipal Party Committee and Government attached great importance to it and quickly held an emergency meeting to establish the "7.31" Yuzhong County Citizen Park Project Problem Investigation Team, which arranged and deployed the investigation and disposal work of the reported problems. The subsequent investigation and disposal results will be promptly disclosed to the society.
Lanzhou Municipal People's Government
July 31, 2023
[News link]
Focus Interview: Investing 900 million yuan to close public parks, focusing on the face saving project under the PPP model in Yuzhong County
With the development of China's economy and society, public venues and facilities in various regions are becoming increasingly abundant, and exhibition halls, grand theaters, cultural centers, and so on have been built, providing diverse choices for people's leisure life. However, at the same time, in the construction process of public venues, there are also situations where some places are detached from local actual needs, "greedy for luxury", and engage in image projects and face saving projects.
Not long ago, during an interview in Yuzhong County, Gansu Province, the reporter discovered a group of public works with a large investment and a stylish appearance, which can be considered a local landmark, but it is deserted in front of the door and no one is interested.
At the edge of Yuzhong County in Gansu Province, there is a citizen park that covers an area of over 200 acres, with most of the surrounding land being vacant. There is a circular building in the center of the park, which looks grand and spectacular, but it is not open. A tourist said that this building has been built for several years and has never been opened.
Why are the completed buildings not open to the public? What exactly is this venue used for? According to local planning, this is a city exhibition hall with a building area of approximately 22000 square meters. The venue has been completed, but it has not been opened because the fire inspection has not been passed yet.
It is understood that this is a key project approved by the Yuzhong County Government in December 2016. According to the project company, this venue will soon be put into use. So, what is the specific background of this project construction? How much investment is there?
Hu Xianghai, Director of the Development and Reform Bureau of Yuzhong County, Gansu Province: Originally, the infrastructure conditions in Yuzhong County were relatively weak, and the infrastructure construction could not meet the growing cultural needs of urban and rural residents. In this situation, the county implemented projects such as citizen parks, venue construction, and new roads.
Liu Dingxin, project leader of the "Citizen Park" project in Yuzhong County, Gansu Fourth Construction Group Co., Ltd.: The total investment of the project is 952 million yuan, with about 170 million yuan for citizen parks, 280 million yuan for urban exhibition halls, and about 170 million yuan for roads.
The project, with a total investment of several billion yuan, has not been fully delivered within 7 years. So, what exactly is the function of this building? What exactly is inside? The reporter walked into the venue to understand the situation. The first thing you see is a hall that is nearly 20 meters high, with a row of huge colonnades that exude grandeur. The first and second floors of the venue are a huge theater that can accommodate 1200 people to watch performances.
The third floor of the venue is the experience hall for urban construction. The project leader introduced that a digital system called "Smart Yuzhong" has been installed here, which includes local smart government, smart transportation, and other information. However, data has not yet been connected. Walking through the planning hall, you can see an empty hall, which is said to serve as the local emergency command center in the future.
According to the data provided by the project company, the smart super brain screen alone has an area of 154 square meters, with a purchase price of over 2.7 million yuan. Not only this big screen, the reporter learned that many of the sub items here are expensive.
For example, the cost of the stage equipment of the Grand Theater is more than 13 million yuan, the software system of "Smart Yuzhong" is 20 million yuan, and the park outside the venue is not cheap. The south gate with the style of Qin and Han Dynasties is 2.39 million yuan, the jade belt bridge built by White Marble is 6.9 million yuan, and the park greening project is up to 66 million yuan.
In the eyes of ordinary people, building a park for tens of millions of yuan is already very expensive, and the total investment of the entire project is over 900 million yuan, which is beyond imagination. In addition to expenses, Yuzhong County is not rich in water resources, and the creation of this water feature is also considered costly by the locals.
So, who will bear the cost of this project? The project leader told reporters that this is a PPP project approved by Yuzhong County. The so-called PPP project refers to a collaborative approach between the government and social entities, based on franchise agreements, to build urban infrastructure projects or provide certain public services.
In 2016, the local government established a project company through public procurement, jointly established by the social capital "Gansu Fourth Construction Group Co., Ltd." and the platform company "Yuzhong Construction Investment" under the Yuzhong government, responsible for project construction and operation. The project is mainly funded and constructed by Gansu Sijian, and will be handed over to the government after 20 years of operation. So, does this project match the local actual needs and financial resources?
Hu Xianghai, Director of the Development and Reform Bureau of Yuzhong County, Gansu Province: I believe that when expert evaluation is conducted, the design is based on the concept of moderate advancement.
Behind moderate advancement lies a high cost. This PPP co construction model adopts the government's full payment method. According to the contract between the two parties, the government needs to pay fees to the social capital party, namely Gansu Four Construction, every year for the next 20 years. The fees not only include construction costs and interest, but also require the government to pay a considerable operating fee.
Liu Dingxin, the project leader of the "Citizen Park" project in Yuzhong County, Gansu Fourth Construction Group Co., Ltd.: If the Grand Theater is put into operation and applies for government payment, according to the implementation plan, if it is calculated to be 3.72 million yuan per year, it can basically be guaranteed to be flat. 1.72 million is for the operation and maintenance of urban exhibition halls, and 2 million is for the operation and maintenance of parks and roads.
In addition to operating expenses, the local government also needs to pay the construction cost to the construction party every year. According to the payment plan provided by the local government, it is planned that in the first year of operation, the Yuzhong County government will have to pay more than 50 million yuan in fees, and the fees will increase year by year. In the later stage, the maximum annual payment will be 180 million yuan, totaling 2.1 billion yuan.
The reporter learned that even if the local government has to pay such high fees in total, the investor "Gansu Sijian" will find it difficult to make a profit, and the vast majority of their investment funds are through bank loans.
It is understood that Gansu Fourth Construction Company is also a state-owned enterprise, and local state-owned enterprises and the local government have paid a considerable cost for this project. So what role will this venue play in enriching local cultural life?
Hu Xianghai, Director of the Development and Reform Bureau of Yuzhong County, Gansu Province: There is currently no plan. The project company has submitted it to us for expert review.
Liu Dingxin, the person in charge of the "Citizen Park" project in Yuzhong County, Gansu Fourth Construction Group Co., Ltd.: According to the PPP contract, unauthorized operation is not allowed because it is a purely government funded project, and there is currently no plan for what to do.
The direct construction cost of this city's exhibition hall is 280 million yuan, and the exact utilization of this venue is not well planned locally, and the benefits it can generate are unknown.
Hu Xianghai, Director of the Development and Reform Bureau of Yuzhong County, Gansu Province: As this venue is currently undergoing fire safety inspections, the specific social benefits it will generate in the next step need to be further evaluated in the actual operation process.
On the one hand, before figuring out how to utilize the venue, they spent a huge amount of money to build it. On the other hand, although the park has been in use for three years, it is located on the edge of the city, three to four kilometers away from the old urban area where local residents are concentrated. It takes a lot of time for the elderly and children to walk there. There are only a few completed residential areas around, mostly empty land and unfinished buildings. Except in the evening, most of the time it is empty.
During a visit to Yuzhong County, the reporter learned that in fact, there is a greater need for public green spaces and parks in the old urban areas of the area. Some elderly people crowded on the roadside to play the piano and relax. Speaking of the newly built Citizen Park, most of these elderly people have never been there.
Building such a large park in a remote area of the county town is difficult for local residents to enjoy convenience, but they have to pay a high price for it every year. So, what is the local financial situation really like? It is understood that Yuzhong County used to be a national level poverty-stricken county, and it was not until 2019 that it withdrew from the ranks of poverty-stricken counties.
Public information shows that in 2023, the general public budget revenue of the county's finance is expected to be 670 million yuan, while the debt expenditure is as high as 1.2 billion yuan. In the case of insufficient revenue to cover expenses, it is necessary to pay over 50 million yuan annually for this large venue that has not been well planned, accounting for almost one tenth of the budget revenue. In this situation, can the local livelihood expenditure be guaranteed?
Hu Xianghai, Director of the Development and Reform Bureau of Yuzhong County, Gansu Province: Some livelihood engineering projects in the county are proceeding normally. One is to strive for policy funding from the country, province, and city, and the other is for county-level finance to carry out some public welfare projects based on financial resources.
It is said that the livelihood projects are proceeding smoothly, but the reporter found that this is not the case during the investigation. During the interview in the Citizen Park, the reporter heard feedback from the public that the promised relocation dates for some shantytown renovations implemented a few years ago have long passed, but have yet to be resettled. Citizens also reported that according to the agreement at that time, before the relocation and resettlement, a resettlement transition fee of 400 yuan per person per month should be paid. But since last year, this fee has also started to be overdue.
Subsequently, the reporter learned from the local Housing and Urban Rural Development Bureau that due to a shortage of investment funds from Yuzhong Construction, a platform company responsible for shantytown renovation by the local government, some resettlement houses have now been suspended. And Yuzhong Construction Investment happens to be a company involved in the construction of citizen parks.
According to the statistics of the local Housing and Urban Rural Development Bureau, the resettlement housing projects on state-owned land alone in Yuzhong County owe more than 30 million yuan in resettlement transition fees to the masses. However, Yuzhong Construction Investment Company is unable to make any money at this time.
Neglecting people's livelihood issues and building image projects is not the first time in the local area. In 2019, two Qin and Han Dynasty antique city gates were built less than 500 meters away from the city entrance, with a height of 28 meters and a width of 145 meters. The entire project cost 62 million yuan and was criticized by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Rural Development.
The notice points out that Yuzhong County, as a national level poverty-stricken county, should use its limited financial resources to develop people's livelihoods, rather than borrowing to build city gates and carry out "face saving projects" at urban entrances and exits. The local government should firmly prevent such "performance projects" and "image projects" that are detached from reality and the masses from happening again.
A place with extremely tight fiscal revenue is repeatedly making so-called "big moves" and making so-called "big articles". It is better to bear 20 years of debt than to create a face image that is not useful, which clearly deviates from the original intention of the people's livelihood project and is even further away from the hearts of the people.
"What is good for the people, what is evil for the people." Behind people's livelihoods lies the hearts of the people. Livelihood projects should focus on solving the urgent and difficult problems of the people, continuously improving their well-being, and making their sense of gain, happiness, and security more abundant, secure, and sustainable; We must never use the name of people's livelihood to engage in image projects or political achievements that harm the people and their finances. Such "image engineering" and "political performance engineering" often end up being projects that damage the image and political performance.
