What trends are revealed? Experts see it this way: in the pharmaceutical anti-corruption storm, many places have raised "integrity accounts" to hold accountable | integrity | accounts
The "anti-corruption account", which has been controversial since its inception and was temporarily put on hold, has recently returned to the public eye in the pharmaceutical anti-corruption storm.
On August 12th, a document titled "Notice of Beijing Municipal Health Commission on Standardizing the Use of Clean Accounts" with an official seal on the signature area attracted widespread attention on social media. According to the online document, personnel of medical and health institutions at all levels in the city and district who "illegally receive gifts, securities, payment vouchers, commercial prepaid cards, valuable items, etc. that cannot be refused, refunded, or inconvenient to return due to various reasons" must return them to a clean account in real name or anonymously. The opening bank of this corporate account is the Beijing Bank Headquarters Business Department.
On the 14th, First Financial called the headquarters business department of Bank of Beijing, and the relevant staff informed the reporter after inquiry that the "clean account" has been put into use. The payer can deposit the payment amount at various branches of Bank of Beijing in Beijing and obtain personal payment vouchers. As for whether there are any restrictive requirements for submission, it is recommended to inquire with your employer.
Li Cenyan, a pharmaceutical compliance lawyer and director of Beijing Zhijin Law Firm, told First Financial that the so-called anti-corruption account is a job integrity management activity that encourages party members and cadres to self inspect and correct. The funds in the anti-corruption account are ultimately turned over to the finance department. It does not belong to the legal category, but may ultimately be connected with the legal treatment of the parties involved.
"From the original intention and purpose of its establishment, it is to allow gifts, securities, and other property that cannot be refused, returned, or inconvenient to be returned in official activities to be deposited into a clean government account under real name or anonymity. Some governments now encourage some illegally collected money to be voluntarily handed over to the clean government account," said Li Cenyan.
Except for Beijing, First Financial learned from the deans of public hospitals and personnel in the health system in Anhui, Henan and other places that the anti-corruption account, which was previously established by the Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection and was put on hold seven or eight years ago, may now be reopened. At the same time, in Guangdong, Jiangxi and other places, some doctors have reported that their public hospitals require medical staff to hand over illegally collected gifts and gifts to the anti-corruption accounts opened by the hospital.
What are the operating modes of anti-corruption accounts
"This account has always been there," said a staff member from the Beijing Bank headquarters' business department.
According to information on the official website of the Beijing Health Commission, in 2012, the former Beijing Municipal Health Bureau organized a mobilization and deployment meeting for the "One Harmony, Three Similarities" campaign in the Beijing health system, conveying the spirit of the Ministry of Health and the Beijing Municipal Government on correcting misconduct and combating commercial bribery, and deploying six key tasks. This includes: publishing an anti-corruption account, that is, disclosing the anti-corruption account of the Municipal Health Bureau for combating commercial bribery to medical personnel. Subsequently, some medical institutions in Beijing have also established their own "integrity accounts" or designated deposit departments.
On August 14th, when asked by the reporter about the above-mentioned bank personnel, whether the "anti-corruption account" provided by Beijing during the centralized governance of medical institutions had changed from the previous account information, the above-mentioned bank staff clarified that there had been no change since its establishment.
Since 2012, anti-corruption work in key areas such as healthcare and education has accelerated. The "Nine Prohibitions" for Strengthening the Construction of Medical and Health Conduct were released in 2013. According to the "nine prohibitions" requirement, the principles and standards of "not accepting patients' red envelopes" and "not accepting kickbacks" are listed as important contents of various assessments for medical and health institutions and personnel, serving as important basis for professional title promotion and evaluation.
In Beijing, Henan, Anhui and other places, clean government accounts are opened for medical personnel in medical institutions for self inspection and self correction. Among them, Beijing has reopened the anti-corruption account through the Municipal Health Commission, while in Henan and other places, the original provincial disciplinary commission will expand the scope of the anti-corruption account for party members, cadres, and national public officials at all levels to include institutions such as universities and public hospitals.
For example, in February 2012, the official website of Henan Cancer Hospital forwarded a notice on the establishment of a Henan Province anti-corruption account. According to the document, in addition to government departments, provincial enterprises and universities are also included in the scope of the notice. At that time, the deposit scope of the "anti-corruption account" included not only the funds that the party members and cadres of these notified units believed to have violated the rules of integrity and self-discipline, but also the discounted funds of cash or securities, payment vouchers, and gifts handed over by party members, cadres, and staff members collected by each unit.
On the 15th, the deputy director of the Health Commission of a certain county in Henan Province told reporters that around 2000, various regions successively established "58l" anti-corruption accounts. Initially, they mainly targeted national public officials, but in the following decade, the coverage of anti-corruption accounts expanded to "quasi public officials" such as hospital doctors. However, from 2015 to 2019, due to certain issues in the operation of anti-corruption accounts, many regions successively revoked provincial-level anti-corruption accounts.
"At present, we have indeed received internal information that a 'clean government account' may be set up specifically for the medical and health field, but specific documents have not been issued yet and may still be deployed. If established, this' clean government account 'should be unified by the Provincial Health Commission or the Commission for Discipline Inspection throughout the province. No unit or individual is allowed to access the clean government account without approval, and the account funds should be paid into the provincial treasury," said the deputy director of the Health Commission.
The director of a third level hospital in a certain county in Anhui province recently told reporters about the ups and downs of the local anti-corruption account. Around 2015, the "anti-corruption account" unified by the local disciplinary inspection department was revoked, and some channels have heard that it may be re established. In addition, some local hospitals have stipulated that employees register and deposit illegal funds to relevant departments within the hospital.
"Previously, the anti-corruption account was mainly aimed at key personnel and middle-level cadres in hospitals, and had a certain 'retroactive' period of 'funds received within three years'. The parties involved can anonymously pay at the bank's branch. Once the parties involved are reported or reviewed, the funds previously deposited into the anti-corruption account can be seen as a reason for seeking' lenient treatment '," the dean said.
According to the Anhui Discipline Inspection and Supervision website on the 14th, on the afternoon of August 11th, the Anhui Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection and Supervision held a video conference of the provincial, municipal, and county level commission for discipline inspection and supervision, making arrangements for the centralized rectification of corruption in the pharmaceutical industry throughout the province.
In Guangdong, in 2016, all anti-corruption accounts established by disciplinary inspection and supervision agencies at all levels in the province have been cancelled in accordance with the requirements of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and the decisions of the Standing Committee of the Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection.
On the evening of the 14th, a doctor from a tertiary hospital in Guangdong revealed to reporters that in this concentrated anti-corruption campaign in the medical field, his hospital has opened an internal "anti-corruption account" and launched a special clearance work on unreasonable remuneration. The main focus is on the issue of doctors receiving unreasonable remuneration from pharmaceutical companies, such as lecture fees, training fees, and seminar fees. The "investigation" period is 5 years.
Scholars: Integrity accounts or temporary measures
On the 15th, the Medical Emergency Department of the National Health Commission issued a "Q&A on the centralized rectification of corruption in the national pharmaceutical industry", which clearly stated that the one-year centralized rectification of corruption in the national pharmaceutical industry will focus on "key minority" and key positions, especially illegal activities such as using power in the pharmaceutical industry for rent-seeking, "selling with money", and profit transmission.
According to Luo Yi, a lawyer from Beijing Dehe Heng Law Firm, in an analysis of First Financial, the anti-corruption action in the pharmaceutical industry needs to carry out systematic governance in all fields, all chains, and all coverage, as well as focus on key areas such as "sales with gold" and "key minorities". Therefore, in terms of anti-corruption measures, a combination of unblocking and blocking can be used. For medical personnel with low levels of illegal and irregular behavior who can achieve educational and corrective effects after refunding, they can be "flexibly processed" through a clean government account.
Li Cenyan believes that the anti-corruption account has its positive significance. For those who illegally collect fees that may be suspected of illegal activities, if they voluntarily hand them over to the anti-corruption account, theoretically speaking, it actually provides a good opportunity for not holding them accountable or leniently handling or reducing their responsibilities in the future.
For example, Article 32 of the Administrative Penalty Law stipulates that if a party voluntarily eliminates or mitigates the harmful consequences of an illegal act; Proactively confessing illegal acts that the administrative authority has not yet mastered; Those who have made meritorious achievements in cooperating with administrative organs to investigate and punish illegal acts shall be given lighter or mitigated administrative penalties.
According to the amendment to the Criminal Law, the subject of commercial bribery crimes has expanded to employees of other units outside of companies and enterprises. This also means that commercial bribery behaviors that occur in the procurement of drugs and devices in medical institutions, such as collecting kickbacks, sponsorship fees, new drug recommendation fees, etc., with large amounts, will be held criminally responsible for commercial bribery crimes.
When searching the Judgments website of First Financial, it was found that in the past five years, in many places such as Anhui and Hunan, local courts have had cases where doctors, as defendants, are suspected of committing the crime of bribery for non-state employees. There have been precedents of lenient punishment for voluntarily paying bribes to the anti-corruption account before filing the case.
However, Zhuang Han, Associate Professor of Administrative Law and Administrative Litigation Law at the School of Law of Wuhan University, analyzed that in the short term, due to the special nature of medical personnel, setting up "clean accounts" in the medical field may be a last resort. He hopes to use this to prevent corruption and save medical workers. However, in the long run, it is a trend for medical staff to be included in the jurisdiction of commercial bribery.
"A clean account is a temporary measure that requires urgent attention to power and has no legal basis," said Zhuang Han.
At the same time, Zhuang Han stated that the revocation of anti-corruption accounts by several provincial disciplinary inspection departments has reflected a prominent issue, which is that some public officials, in order to cover up corruption, accept more and pay less, using anti-corruption accounts as a "cover" for accepting bribes. Given that the anti-corruption accounts targeting public hospital doctors and other staff in public institutions are essentially no different from the previous anti-corruption accounts targeting national public officials. Therefore, in the application process of "clean accounts", attention should also be paid to the connection between discipline and law, and it is not advisable to simply hand it over and replace it with discipline.
In the short term, there are also issues that need to be further clarified regarding the application of anti-corruption accounts in medicine. "The establishment of a clean government account can serve as a warning and deterrent, but in terms of its scope of application, it still needs to be improved. It is necessary to clarify the boundaries between gray income and legal and illegal income. If pharmaceutical companies provide doctors with real, legal, and legitimate labor costs based on market pricing, they should not turn them in," said Li Cenyan.
