State Food Administration cracks down on IOUs in grain procurement

Recently, at the national training course for directors of grain bureaus, Zhao Zhongquan, member of the Party Leadership Group of the State Food Administration and head of the discipline inspection group stationed at the administration, delivered a report titled "Be Alert, Persevere Without Letup, and Unswervingly Advance Party Conduct and Anti-Corruption Work in the Grain System."

Zhao Zhongquan first conveyed the spirit of the Fourth Plenary Session of the 18th Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and made an in-depth analysis of the current situation of Party conduct and anti-corruption work in the grain system. He pointed out that there is no "Shangri-La" in anti-corruption, and the grain sector is not a pure land or a pool of clear water. The idea that the grain sector is a weak sector with little power and little risk, where major corruption problems will not occur, is very dangerous and very harmful and must arouse a high degree of vigilance. It is necessary to clearly understand the arduousness and complexity of Party conduct and anti-corruption work in the grain system, deeply analyze and learn from the causes and lessons of corruption cases in the grain system, and act as if treading on thin ice and be alert!

It is necessary to closely integrate the reality of the grain system, truly unify thought and action with the spirit of the Fourth Plenary Session of the 18th Central Committee of the Party and the spirit of the Fourth Plenary Session of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, and, in accordance with the requirements of the Party Leadership Group of the State Food Administration, unswervingly advance Party conduct and anti-corruption work in the grain system. First, strictly enforce Party discipline. It is necessary to know discipline and have a sense of the bottom line; to observe discipline and hold a heart of reverence; and to enforce discipline and fulfill the responsibility of enforcement. Second, earnestly implement the "two responsibilities." It is necessary to clarify responsibilities, implement responsibilities, and pursue accountability, ensure that mistakes are corrected and responsibility is questioned, and truly safeguard and give play to the authority and effectiveness of the responsibility system for Party conduct and clean government. Third, persevere in improving work style. It is necessary to grasp the regular, make sustained efforts, and achieve results over time; grasp the detailed, focusing on one node and one specific problem at a time, proceeding from the shallow to the deep and accumulating small victories into major ones; and grasp the long term, extending from solving the "four forms of decadence" problem, striving to improve ideological style, work style, leadership style, and the style of life of cadres, so that style construction takes root and forms a new normal. Fourth, comprehensively rectify acts that harm the interests of farmers and grain consumers. It is necessary to start with the problems most strongly reflected by grain-growing farmers and grain consumers, begin reform from the places of greatest dissatisfaction, and start from the things most eagerly hoped for, persist in linkage between higher and lower levels, mobilize the strength of the entire industry, resolve, use great effort, and strike heavy blows, and ceaselessly rectify acts in the grain system that harm the interests of grain-growing farmers and grain consumers. It is necessary to seriously rectify acts that harm the interests of grain-growing farmers, such as issuing IOUs in grain procurement, difficulty in selling grain, and downgrading quality and prices; seriously rectify the problems of "circulating grain" and "difficulty in warehouse release" in the supervision of policy-based grain purchase and storage; seriously rectify the problem of implementing grain-related policies and measures in a shrunken and distorted way; seriously rectify the problem of grain enterprises violating safety production regulations; and seriously rectify the problems of crude work style and abuse of power in grain law enforcement and supervision. Fifth, strengthen Party conduct and clean government construction at the grassroots level in the grain system. It is necessary to take deepening reform and advancing the rule of law as the fundamental policy for strengthening Party conduct and anti-corruption work, plug the loopholes that breed corruption, and squeeze the space in which corruption occurs. Fully implement the "five comprehensives and five focuses" proposed by the Party Leadership Group of the State Food Administration: comprehensively advance grain governance according to law, and focus on forming a new pattern of safeguarding national food security by relying on the rule of law; comprehensively implement grain management according to law, and focus on raising the level of rule of law in grain circulation; comprehensively implement administration according to law, and focus on advancing the construction of law-based organs in grain departments at all levels; comprehensively promote the performance of duties according to law, and focus on strengthening the building of a law-based grain workforce; and comprehensively advocate lawful business operations, and focus on creating an environment in which grain operators do business lawfully and in good faith. Through the efforts of the entire system, gradually form a good situation in which the industry governs grain according to law, organs administer according to law, cadres perform duties according to law, and enterprises operate according to law.