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cartoonist: yin li, people's government of yongxin town, qijiang district, chongqing

"case study"

"this is a normal personal loan. i even wrote an iou. how can it be considered illegal?"

"i have already repaid the loan and i don't owe any money. what's wrong with that?"

one day in october 2023, zhang, deputy director of a district urban management bureau, faced inquiries from the district's commission for discipline inspection and supervision staff and made a "strong argument". it turned out that the district's commission for discipline inspection and supervision, based on relevant clues, found that zhang had violated discipline by borrowing large sums from others. so, when the staff approached zhang for a preliminary investigation, the scene at the beginning happened.

as early as 2018, the local real estate market was in a good situation. zhang saw that it was profitable, so he had the idea of ​​speculating in real estate for profit. after repeated selection, he finally chose a 230-square-meter river view house with a total price of more than 5 million yuan. at that time, zhang had only 500,000 yuan. in order to make a down payment, he borrowed 1.2 million yuan from his "friend" luo, a private enterprise boss, and agreed to repay the loan immediately after he sold the house for a profit. later, due to the deterioration of the real estate market, zhang has not been able to sell the house, but has verbally promised to repay luo many times.

at the end of 2021, because luo was in urgent need of money, zhang transferred another property under his name to luo, and signed an agreement to use the corresponding value of the house to offset the 1.2 million yuan debt and interest owed to luo.

it is worth noting that luo, as the legal representative of a cleaning company, had business dealings with the urban management bureau. during the period when zhang was the deputy director, he had undertaken the bureau's urban waste transportation and disposal business many times.

"although you have an iou and eventually repaid the debt, as a leading cadre, borrowing large sums of money from those you manage and serve may have affected the impartial performance of your official duties, which has constituted a violation of discipline..." after ascertaining the facts of the case, the staff of the district's discipline inspection and supervision commission talked to zhang again and pointed out the crux of the problem.

"i thought i had done everything carefully, but i still made a mistake." after the staff's patient explanation and serious education, zhang finally lowered his head.

in january 2024, zhang was given a serious warning within the party for illegally borrowing money from those under his management and service.

「profiling」

since the 18th cpc national congress, party members and cadres have frequently borrowed money, housing, and vehicles from those they manage and serve. the regulations on disciplinary actions of the communist party of china (hereinafter referred to as the regulations), revised in 2018, added new provisions on penalties for party members and cadres’ illegal borrowing and lending in article 90; the newly revised regulations in 2023 further clarified that illegal borrowing of property that “may” affect the impartial performance of official duties will constitute a violation of discipline.

in this case, zhang's act of borrowing money from luo was not a normal civil loan relationship, but rather an illegal act of borrowing money from the objects of management and service in violation of regulations.

first, the relationship between the lender and the borrower is that of management and service objects. management and service objects include subordinate units and subordinates who have a subordinate, supervisory, and restrictive relationship with party members and cadres, as well as administrative law enforcement counterparts, public project management counterparts, and other personnel. to determine whether a lender is a management and service object, it is mainly necessary to see whether the lender's interests are directly or indirectly restricted or affected by the power of party members and cadres. in this case, the lender luo took over the business of zhang's unit. zhang's power can directly restrict and affect the business of luo's company. luo is a typical management and service object of zhang.

second, there is a possibility that the loan relationship will affect the impartial performance of official duties. zhang's borrowing behavior occurred before the implementation of the newly revised "regulations", and article 90 of the 2018 "regulations" on illegal borrowing of money from management and service objects should be applied. "affecting the impartial performance of official duties" in this article refers to both "already affecting the impartial performance of official duties" and "may affect the impartial performance of official duties." the newly revised "regulations" added the word "may" to this article, which directly clarifies the connotation of the article in terms of expression and promotes strict discipline.

third, the borrowing behavior reached a serious level. illegal borrowing of money from the management and service objects only constitutes a violation of discipline if the circumstances are serious or severe. the severity of the circumstances can be determined from the amount, duration, motive and purpose of borrowing, repayment situation, etc. in this case, zhang's borrowing was not for living needs, and the necessity and urgency of the borrowing could not be proved. at the same time, zhang's borrowing amount was large and the period was long. he also delayed repayment on the grounds that he could not sell the house for profit. his subjective malicious degree of occupying luo's money was high, which was a serious behavior.

in practice, there are still cases where party members and cadres accept bribes in the name of borrowing money, and business owners bribe in the name of lending money. if party members and cadres borrow money and occupy it for a long time without returning it, and the lender does not pursue it, it may involve hidden variations of power-for-money transactions and interest transfers.

there is a knife next to the word "profit". party members and cadres illegally borrow and occupy the money of the objects of management and service in the name of "borrowing", which is very likely to infringe on the integrity of party members and cadres, and even lead to illegal and criminal acts such as power-for-money transactions. those who "play the edge ball" such as illegally borrowing money from the objects of management and service should be dealt with seriously, and continue to send a strong signal that violations of discipline must be investigated and discipline must be strictly enforced, so as to deepen the comprehensive and strict governance of the party.

authors: luo zexu, fu jing, li liang; authors’ units: chongqing municipal commission for discipline inspection and supervision, yubei district commission for discipline inspection and supervision