It is a common problem for discipline inspection and supervision organs to organize weddings, funerals and celebrations in violation of regulations. Combined with the practice of discipline review, this paper discusses some thoughts on how to define whether discipline is violated, how to overcome the difficulties in obtaining evidence, and how to grasp the punishment grade.
How to grasp the boundary between violation of discipline and non-violation
The first paragraph of Article 85 of the Regulations on Disciplinary Actions in the Communist Party of China (CPC), which came into effect on January 1, 2016, stipulates: "If you take advantage of your authority or position to handle weddings, funerals and celebrations, and cause adverse effects in society, you will be given a warning or a serious warning; If the circumstances are serious, the punishment within the party shall be revoked. " The second paragraph stipulates: "Anyone who takes the opportunity to collect money or commits other acts that infringe upon the interests of the state, the collective and the people in organizing weddings, funerals and celebrations shall be given a heavier or heavier punishment in accordance with the provisions of the preceding paragraph until he is expelled from the party." To judge whether an act belongs to the problem of illegal handling of weddings, funerals and celebrations, the key is to closely follow the constitutive requirements of violation of discipline and identify it in combination with relevant regulations and superior requirements.
Whether to use the influence of authority or position. The use of authority refers to the use of the authority in charge, responsibility and undertaking a certain official business or the authority of other state staff who have subordinate and restrictive relations in their positions; Taking advantage of the influence of one’s position is a convenient condition formed by taking advantage of one’s authority or position. If you use the influence of authority or position to inform or invite management objects, subordinates, other people who have job affiliation with you, staff of subordinate units and staff of other units with work connections to attend banquets, occupy public resources, use the company bus to pick up and drop off people attending banquets, transport related items, or provide convenience or seek benefits for yourself and your family, you may be suspected of violating discipline. For example, Yang, director of the Supervision Office of Zhengzhou City Garden Bureau, has the supervision function over the secondary institutions under the bureau. When he prepares a wedding banquet for his daughter, he actively invites the heads of the secondary institutions to participate. This practice belongs to the use of authority and constitutes a violation of discipline.
Whether it has caused adverse social impact. The "bad influence" here refers to causing negative repercussions among the masses or society and damaging the image of the party and state workers. Specifically, it is because of the wedding, funeral and celebration that it interferes with and hinders the normal order of production, life, work, business, teaching, scientific research and transportation, or causes bad public opinion. For example, three brothers Liu, deputy secretary of the Fugou County Political and Legal Committee, held a funeral for their father, and informed the leaders and colleagues of the county party committee office, the county government office and other units to attend. During the period, more than 200 vehicles were mourned, including 43 buses, which caused serious adverse effects in society, and three people were respectively punished by the party discipline and the organization.
Whether there is a big situation. In practice, the so-called "big operation and big management" refers to the large number of banquets, large ostentation and extravagance, high standards and extravagant comparison, which obviously exceeds the local normal living consumption level. For example, in the case of Zhao’s violation of discipline in the Group Industry Department of xinzheng city Party Committee, Zhao organized a wedding for his son, arranged to rent a luxury car to drive on the main roads of the city, rented a salute car and drum team at the wedding site, and organized banquets for many times to receive gifts, which constituted a big deal.
Whether it violates the relevant filing system. In recent years, various localities have successively issued relevant regulations on standardizing the reporting of weddings, funerals, banquets and banquets for cadres in party member, and made corresponding provisions on the standards and reporting procedures of the management. It is illegal to operate privately without reporting, or the standard and scale of operation exceed the scale of reporting.
How to find the key points of evidence collection
In the practice of discipline review, such cases are prone to problems that the evidence standard and key points of evidence collection are difficult to grasp, which need to be further clarified to avoid "raw food" or the evidence is not solid.
How to identify the influence and bad influence of using authority or position. To judge whether a party member cadre takes advantage of his power or position to handle wedding, funeral and celebration in violation of regulations, we should not only extract the evidence such as the division of duties and employment documents of the actor, but also verify whether the behavior of handling wedding, funeral and celebration is related to his position, such as informing the people attending the banquet whether there is any work connection with him, whether he is affected by his position and status, etc. With regard to the problem of adverse social impact, in addition to reports from the masses, reports from the Internet, newspapers and other media, colleagues in the unit and the surrounding people’s knowledge and understanding of party member cadres’ wedding, funeral and festive behavior are also important factors in determining whether it has caused adverse social impact.
How to determine the amount of gift and the amount of violation of discipline. Generally, there are many people involved in organizing weddings, funerals and celebrations in violation of regulations, and it is difficult to ask for evidence. It is necessary to extract the relevant documentary evidence that can record the amount of gift money in time during the investigation, sort out the gift money related to the influence of the party’s authority or position, and identify the disciplinary money. In addition, we can make a comprehensive judgment through other evidence, such as the description of the participants and handlers, the scale of the banquet, etc., and we can’t simply determine the amount of gift money and the amount of violation of discipline based on the statements of the parties.
How to verify the banquet scale and banquet standard. The difficulty in obtaining evidence in this respect is that sometimes hotels are not kept, or for some reason they are unwilling to provide them to the discipline inspection and supervision department. In practice, we should pay attention to collecting the testimony materials of the hotel’s responsible person, handlers and other staff, the hotel’s credit card payment records and other materials, and combine the statements of the parties to comprehensively identify the scale and standard of the banquet. When obtaining evidence, we should pay attention to analyzing and eliminating contradictions in evidence, so that transcripts, testimony materials, documentary evidence and physical evidence can form a complete evidence chain.
How to reasonably determine the punishment grade
In 2016 and 2003, "Regulations on Disciplinary Actions in the Communist Party of China (CPC)" did not change the punishment grade for party member cadres’ illegal handling of weddings, funerals and celebrations. In practice, the punishment grade should be reasonably determined from the following four aspects according to the circumstances, nature and local conditions.
Look at the subjective attitude of violating discipline. When determining the punishment grade, we should first look at the cognition of the parties to their disciplinary actions, that is, the subjective aspects of the constitutive requirements of disciplinary violations. If the parties are not familiar with the policies and regulations, resulting in the form and standards of operation do not meet the requirements, they can be properly considered when measuring the discipline; However, if you take the initiative to use the influence of authority or position, deliberately evade the policy provisions or turn a deaf ear to the requirements of superiors, and there are opportunities to collect money and other acts that infringe on the interests of the state, the collective and the people, it can be used as an important reference to determine the grade and confirm whether there are serious circumstances when measuring discipline. For example, Li, the public security brigade of Bo ‘ai County Public Security Bureau, took advantage of the move to a new house to do a big job. After receiving the report, the local discipline inspection commission ordered him to cancel the banquet and sent someone to supervise it. However, after the supervisors left, Li continued to arrange the banquet and receive the gift money. His subjective attitude was very bad. Therefore, Li was punished by staying in the party for one year and lowering his post level, and was transferred from the public security brigade.
Look at the specific scale of the operation. The scale and standard of banquets organized by the parties is also a key factor in determining the punishment grade. If the ostentation and extravagance of the banquet obviously exceeds the local standard of normal weddings, funerals and festive banquets, especially if the party does not converge or stop after the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, it can be used as a reference for heavier or heavier treatment. For example, the director of the Standing Committee of the People’s Congress of a county in Chongqing hosted a wedding for his son, used luxury vehicles to form a wedding convoy, and hosted more than 100 tables in a five-star hotel. The wedding cost was as high as 400,000 yuan, which was a typical big event.
Look at the degree of adverse effects. Party member cadres’ illegal handling of weddings, funerals and celebrations infringes on the system of honesty and self-discipline and social customs, which will also affect people’s views on the Party committee and government and damage the image of the Party. Therefore, the degree of adverse social impact must be fully considered when determining the quality and quantity. For example, Wang, deputy secretary of the Disciplinary Committee of a town in Chongqing, held a birthday banquet for his father, invited nearly 1,000 government officials, village cadres and some management clients to attend, and held a total of 114 tables. After the problem was exposed by an online forum, it caused serious adverse social impact. Wang himself was severely warned by the party and was dismissed.
See the performance of cooperating with the investigation. The disciplinary personnel’s understanding of their mistakes and the actual performance of cooperating with the investigation are the external manifestation of their subjective attitude, and also an important factor to be considered when determining the punishment grade. If those who violate the discipline can realize their own problems, actively cooperate with the organization to investigate, truthfully state the facts, explain the source and amount of the gift money, and voluntarily hand in the disciplinary income, it can be used as a reference for mitigating or mitigating circumstances when measuring discipline. For example, in the case of Li’s violation of discipline by Zhengzhou Municipal Health Planning Commission, Li was always able to actively cooperate with the organization in the investigation and trial stage, with a good attitude of admitting mistakes, and took the initiative to hand over the gift of 55,200 yuan to the organization, comprehensively considering Li’s understanding, attitude and performance of mistakes, and dealt with it lightly in qualitative and quantitative discipline. (Shen Hongjiang Hongtao Author: Zhengzhou City Commission for Discipline Inspection, Henan Province)
postscript
Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, illegal handling of weddings, funerals and celebrations has always occupied a considerable proportion of the mental problems that have been investigated and dealt with by discipline inspection and supervision organs at all levels in violation of the eight central regulations. In 2015, a total of 5,115 large-scale weddings, funerals and celebrations were investigated, 6,057 people were dealt with and 4,413 people were given disciplinary sanctions. To investigate and deal with such problems, it is necessary to identify and deal with them in strict accordance with party discipline and regulations. This paper puts forward some thoughts based on the practice of discipline review, which has certain reference and reference significance.
The Regulations on Disciplinary Actions in the Communist Party of China (CPC), which came into effect on January 1, 2016, stipulates in Article 85 three types of disciplinary actions in party member’s handling of weddings, funerals and celebrations, namely:
1. Taking advantage of one’s authority or position to influence the handling of weddings, funerals and celebrations, causing adverse effects in society. Compared with the "taking advantage of one’s position" in the first paragraph of Article 81 of the original regulations, the new regulations emphasize that in addition to taking advantage of one’s position, it is also forbidden to take advantage of the influence of one’s position to handle weddings, funerals and celebrations, which fully embodies the requirements of strictly administering the party in an all-round way. For this kind of behavior, no matter whether it is lavish or not, whether it is accepting gifts or not, as long as party member uses his power or position to influence the operation, such as using the manpower and material resources of the management service object, and causing adverse effects in society, it can be considered as a violation of discipline.
Two, by handling weddings, funerals and celebrations of the opportunity to collect money. The main form of expression is that the actor collects a large amount of gift money in handling weddings, funerals and celebrations through large-scale or multiple invitations to treat guests.
Three, in organizing weddings, funerals and celebrations, there are other violations of the interests of the state, the collective and the people. For example, the normal production, life, work, business, teaching, scientific research, traffic order and other normal order are disturbed and hindered by the wedding, funeral and celebration, or there are circumstances that cause casualties and other major accidents, and so on.
Customs about weddings, funerals and celebrations vary from place to place, but customs cannot be an excuse for party member to break the discipline. To deal with the illegal handling of weddings, funerals and celebrations, it is necessary to comprehensively consider the local economic development level, strictly follow the party discipline and regulations, and reflect the rigidity of discipline.
(Provided by China Journal of Discipline Inspection and Supervision)