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xinhua news agency, changsha, september 14th, title: 88 people were held accountable for treating people's livelihood funds as "tang monk's meat" - investigation into fraud in the shantytown renovation project in dongkou county, hunan

xinhua news agency "xinhua viewpoint" reporters ming xing, yao yu, xie ben

on september 14, the discipline inspection and supervision authorities in hunan province announced the results of their investigation into fraudulent activities in the shantytown renovation project in dongkou county. they held 88 public officials suspected of violating disciplines and laws accountable, and took detention measures against 14 of them who were suspected of committing duty crimes.

shantytown reconstruction was supposed to be a popular project to realize the dream of a safe and secure home, but why did it end up harming the interests of the people? xinhua viewpoint reporters found in interviews in dongkou county that the local government "seeked for performance" and "made decisions on the spur of the moment" when applying for projects, and engaged in fraud and neglected supervision and management when implementing projects.

at present, dongkou county has started rectification, and the hunan provincial department of housing and urban-rural development has taken the lead in organizing the investigation and rectification of similar problems across the province.

over the past five years, funds for shantytown renovation have been embezzled by a number of public officials and private business owners.

an investigation by relevant departments in hunan province found that from 2012 to 2017, the main leaders of the dongkou county party committee and the county government made illegal decisions in order to seek short-term political achievements. public officials from multiple departments and private business owners conspired together to engage in long-term organized fraud and false reporting to defraud and embezzle national funds for the renovation of urban areas.

fourteen public officials, including ai fangyi, former secretary of the dongkou county party committee, and zhou lebin, former head of dongkou county, were investigated and detained for suspected duty crimes. the public security organs filed cases against nine private business owners suspected of illegal crimes and took criminal compulsory measures.

since the beginning of this year, some people have continuously reported that many shantytown renovation projects in dongkou county have problems such as unauthorized changes in project implementation and some funds being defrauded and misappropriated.

during an interview in dongkou county, the reporter found that there were multiple problems in the implementation of some local shantytown renovation projects.

——uniformly changing the project implementation method and deviating from the original intention of shantytown renovation.

it is understood that the 10 shantytown renovation projects that the local people complained about the most generally had the problem of unauthorized changes in implementation methods. the original resettlement housing construction and monetary compensation were actually changed to comprehensive environmental improvement.

many residents of zhonghe community, gaosha town, dongkou county reported that some wooden houses along the street were dilapidated and had not been repaired. some people in the shantytown renovation project reported that they did not receive any funding for the renovation when they renovated their old houses.

the reporter checked the relevant information and found that from 2015 to 2016, dongkou county did not go through the approval and filing procedures, and arbitrarily adjusted the resettlement housing for 2,077 households and the monetary resettlement for 1,296 households out of 5,079 households in 10 shantytown renovation projects to comprehensive environmental improvement, and invested the project funds in the construction of infrastructure such as shantytown roads, street lights, and sewage pipelines.

local officials responded to reporters that in actual operation, the project was changed to comprehensive environmental improvement because the county finances were unable to match the funds. taking the shantytown renovation project in zhonghe community, gaosha town as an example, the original plan was to renovate 1,500 households, of which 300 households would be resettled with monetary funds and 1,200 households would be built into resettlement housing. however, according to the demolition compensation standards and construction costs at the time, the county finances needed to match the funds by more than 100 million yuan, which was difficult for the local finances to bear, and eventually it became a workaround and discount.

——funds are not used in a standardized manner, and there is misappropriation and illegal lending.

in the use of funds for shantytown renovation projects, there are problems such as changing the purpose, misappropriation and even illegal lending. the former dongkou county housing bureau used a total of 12.705 million yuan in financial subsidies from higher authorities and supporting infrastructure funds from the central budget to build 150 resettlement houses for shantytown renovation. however, the reporter found through on-site visits that these resettlement houses were not used to resettle shantytown renovation households, but were rented out as public rental housing.

——project management is not standardized and lacks transparency and supervision.

in addition to the implementation phase, there are also irregularities in the application and acceptance of local shantytown renovation projects. the reporter checked the relevant information and found that some projects had problems such as missing application materials, illegal construction without following the procedures, incomplete acceptance records and testing materials, and lack of effective supervision during the construction process.

decision-making is done on the spur of the moment, implementation is done in a fake way, and acceptance is given the green light

the reporter found that the reason behind the fraud and counterfeiting problems in the shantytown renovation project in dongkou county was that the local authorities "made decisions on the spur of the moment", "faked things" during implementation, and "gave the green light" to acceptance, treating funds for people's livelihood as "tang monk's meat".

the reporter checked the relevant information and found that, for example, the shantytown renovation project in zhonghe community, gaosha town, received 12.456 million yuan in special subsidies from the central and provincial governments, but the county finances needed more than 100 million yuan in matching funds. the 10 shantytown renovation projects that were the most popular among the masses received 82.496 million yuan in special subsidies from the central and provincial governments, and the matching funds needed by the local governments were even greater.

knowing that there is such a huge funding gap, why do they still want to "put on a brave face"?

some cadres admitted to reporters that when applying for shantytown renovation projects, counties competed with each other in terms of the number and amount of projects. they did not start from the actual needs of the people and did not conduct a thorough investigation of the necessity. as a result, some areas that did not need shantytown renovation were included. "others have already applied, and we will fall behind if we don't apply."

when applying for projects, they seek to show results and make decisions "on the spur of the moment", and when implementing projects, they engage in false operations.

it has been verified that during the implementation of the shantytown renovation project, public officials from multiple departments and private business owners conspired together to engage in long-term organized fraud, embezzling and misappropriating state shantytown renovation subsidy funds by fabricating resettlement compensation households, using completed commercial real estate projects to falsely report shantytown renovation projects, and carrying out surrounding supporting construction in the name of shantytown renovation. the competent departments "made adjustments" and "gave the green light" when accepting projects, resulting in the approval of some obviously unrealistic "problematic projects."

at the same time, fake projects are being run in an almost "closed" environment. during a visit to dongkou county, the reporter found that most project sites had no public notice boards for shantytown renovation projects, and residents knew nothing about the project content and progress. some residents in the shantytown renovation area said they were not clear about the scope of the shantytowns and had not seen any actual housing renovation.

local governments should allow the public to participate in the rectification of livelihood projects

the reporter learned that since march 19, the dongkou county party committee and the county government have established the dongkou county shantytown redevelopment project verification and rectification leading group, with the county party committee secretary and the county governor as co-chairs. a comprehensive verification and rectification of the county's 97 shantytown renovation projects since 2010 were carried out in three batches, and a total of 633 problems of various types were found.

as of september 10, 620 problems of various types have been rectified. the 13 problems that have not been rectified mainly involve planning adjustments, land approvals, and accountability and loss recovery, and are going through legal procedures.

it is understood that while hunan province is seriously investigating and dealing with the problem of fraud in the shantytown renovation project in dongkou county, the provincial department of housing and urban-rural development has taken the lead in organizing and carrying out similar problems throughout the province. the provincial discipline inspection and supervision organs have included the special rectification of urban shantytown renovation into the focus of concentrated rectification of unhealthy practices and corruption around the people, strengthened the handling of clues, and thoroughly investigated the corruption and dereliction of duty behind them. as of the end of august, the province had uncovered 2,630 clues of related problems, filed 1,275 cases, imposed party discipline and administrative sanctions on 889 people, transferred 191 people to judicial organs, and recovered and returned more than 370 million yuan of funds in violation of discipline and law.

the cadres interviewed suggested that the grassroots should not act recklessly in the process of declaring and implementing people-friendly policies. instead, they should introduce a mechanism for mass participation to ensure the people's right to know and right to supervise, and avoid secret operations. a full-process supervision mechanism should be established for major livelihood projects to ensure the accuracy and scientific nature of capital investment. a sound accountability mechanism for major projects should be established to prevent such incidents from happening.