Poverty alleviation funds "sleep big sleep", not so simple waste

Poverty alleviation funds not only place hopes on people in poverty-stricken areas to improve their lives, but also carry major development strategies of the Party and the state. A large amount of funds lying on the account "sleep", not only increased the cost of capital occupation, resulting in waste of resources, but also affected the implementation of national macro-policies, delayed the development opportunities and poverty alleviation strategy. The impact is not small, and the losses are not small.

Recently, the National Audit Office issued an announcement on the follow-up audit results of the implementation of major national policies and measures in the second quarter of 2016. As for the problem that poverty alleviation funds have been wasted or idle before, the announcement said that among the 203.654 billion yuan of central funds involved in 1077 units and 1633 projects in this audit, 4.3347 million yuan of poverty alleviation funds were illegally withdrawn or used for expenditures unrelated to poverty alleviation tasks, and 97.0682 million yuan of poverty alleviation funds were idle and did not give full play to their benefits in time.

More than 4 million yuan of poverty alleviation funds have been withdrawn and more than 97 million yuan of poverty alleviation funds have been idle. These two sets of data reflect the outstanding problems in the management and use of poverty alleviation project funds at present. For a long time in the past, the problem of poverty alleviation funds being stolen or illegally used has always attracted great attention due to its bad nature and great harm to society. In recent years, with the continuous increase of the state's poverty alleviation and development efforts, the investment of poverty alleviation funds and the scale of project construction have become larger and larger. Relevant departments have strengthened supervision over relevant fields and intensified their efforts to crack down on job-related crimes in the poverty alleviation field. At the same time, a new phenomenon is that the problem of idle poverty alleviation funds has begun to emerge. At the end of June this year, the Audit Office reported to the National People's Congress on the audit of the implementation of the 2015 central budget and other financial revenues and expenditures. It is reported that poverty alleviation funds focused on spot checks in 40 counties in 17 provinces. Of the 5.013 billion yuan of poverty alleviation funds sampled, 843 million yuan (accounting for 17%) had been idle for more than one year by the end of March 2016, of which 260 million yuan had been idle for more than two years and the longest was more than 15 years; 29 poverty alleviation projects in 17 counties were abandoned, idle or failed to achieve the expected results after completion, resulting in losses and wastes of 27.0611 million yuan.

Compared with being stolen or illegally used, poverty alleviation funds are idle, it seems that the money is still there, and the nature is not serious. However, in fact, the idleness of poverty alleviation funds means, to a large extent, the stagnation of relevant work. Poverty alleviation funds not only place hopes on people in poverty-stricken areas to improve their lives, but also carry major development strategies of the Party and the state. A large amount of funds lying on the account "sleep", not only increased the cost of capital occupation, resulting in waste of resources, but also affected the implementation of national macro-policies, delayed the development opportunities and poverty alleviation strategy. The impact is not small, and the losses are not small.

So why is there a lot of poverty alleviation funds idle? In particular, in some areas, the longest overdue period is as long as 15 years. It can be seen that this is not only a problem with the efficiency of the use and management of funds, but also reflects the inaction of relevant departments and the absence of supervision mechanism.

First, there is a lack of scientific decision-making. In some places, when applying for project funds, they are often unusually enthusiastic, do not engage in scientific planning, and blindly seek more and more. However, after the funds are in place, they find that it is difficult to implement them according to the actual situation at the grass-roots level, or too many supporting funds are difficult to bear, resulting in the project being unable to land; secondly, the use of prescribed restrictions. According to the current regulations on the allocation and use of funds,"soy sauce money can not buy vinegar", although the central government has also issued relevant policies to increase the intensity of reform, but in practice it is often difficult to break through these regulations for effective integration, resulting in "can not act". There are also some places that dare not integrate for fear of affecting special assessment and performance, which seriously affect the overall use of financial funds and the exertion of benefits; moreover, the accountability mechanism is absent. At present, there is no effective supervision and accountability mechanism for the idle poverty alleviation funds, which leads to some departments not trying to solve the problem of idle funds once they encounter obstacles or difficulties in promoting poverty alleviation work. In addition, practical problems such as difficulties in supporting local finance and inaccurate determination of poverty alleviation targets also inhibit the initiative of local poverty alleviation, resulting in idle funds and other problems.

It should be noted that although China has increased its investment in poverty-stricken areas in recent years, on the whole, China's poverty alleviation funds are absolutely not so much that they can be used up and allowed to "sleep" for many years. Especially at the critical moment when building a well-off society in an all-round way by 2020 has entered the sprint stage, under the background that the current economic development has entered a new normal state and the growth rate of national fiscal revenue has declined, how to make good use of the limited poverty alleviation funds is very important under the circumstances that the poverty level in some places is still very deep and the poverty alleviation funds are relatively scarce. This is not only a question of efficiency, but also a question of fairness. It is also a political requirement.

Time does not wait for people. At present, we should focus on some long-term idle poverty alleviation funds and projects. We should recover those that should be recovered and solve those that should be solved. We should not only clear up old accounts, but also prevent new accounts. We should clarify them one by one and implement them one by one. The key is to see what demands of the poor people behind it are long-outstanding and must be responded to as soon as possible.

From the perspective of long-term development, in order to solve the problem of idle poverty alleviation funds, we must prescribe the right medicine and make efforts in many ways before, during, after and outside the event. First of all, we should properly examine and approve at the source, adhere to scientific project approval and scientific planning, and proceed from reality to match the application funds with the project requirements. Relevant departments must conduct scientific demonstration and examination of poverty alleviation projects declared at the grass-roots level; secondly, strengthen supervision in the process of project implementation, supervise and urge the implementation of approved projects and budgets in a timely manner, give effective guidance and assistance to difficulties existing in project implementation, and correct existing problems in a timely manner; In addition, accountability should be done afterwards. Some projects and relevant responsible persons that have been idle for a large amount of poverty alleviation funds for a long time without reason must be held accountable. The phenomenon of idle funds for 15 years must not occur again. For some places with high efficiency in the use of poverty alleviation funds, rewards and rewards can be given according to relevant regulations. In addition, we should intensify reform efforts in relevant fields, promote the integration of poverty alleviation funds and poverty alleviation projects, avoid the problem of "funding" from multiple sources and "sprinkling pepper noodles", reduce or cancel financial support in special areas, and effectively reduce the financial burden borne by poor people.