"Internet Plus" helps farmers hold on to their money
Not long ago, an agricultural insurance expert spoke with deep concern about the problem of agricultural insurance claim payouts being withheld and never reaching farmers' hands.
He said that judging from surveys over the past two years, the practice of grassroots agencies and village committee cadres intercepting or fraudulently claiming the claim payouts of farmer households working away from home had never been stamped out. "Some disaster-affected farmer households cannot get the full claim payout; some have no idea at all that the insurance company paid them this money. Agricultural insurance is a project benefiting farmers, and the state has put up huge sums to support it, yet in the end this good policy goes down the drain at the village committee level!" He was deeply pained by this.
It is not only agricultural insurance claim funds that are being eroded. Audit data show that in 2015, 41 grassroots agencies and some village and township cadres fraudulently obtained and misappropriated 14.4838 million yuan in rural dilapidated housing renovation subsidies through false reporting and fraudulent claiming, interception and withholding, or the collection of "deposits." In addition, according to public media reports, the interception by grassroots village committees of agriculture-related subsidies and compensation funds, such as subsidies for returning farmland to forest, compensation for land expropriation and demolition, and funds for land reserved for villagers, has also been seen scattered in various places.
If the "last mile" of fund payment is not managed well, not only are villagers' interests harmed and the policies benefiting farmers diluted, but the fairness and justice of grassroots social governance are also undermined.
How can the loopholes be plugged and the "big rats" reined in? Besides establishing rules and regulations and enforcing strict discipline and accountability, it may be worth considering hitching a ride on the "express train of the times" that is the mobile internet. In June this year, Sihong County in Jiangsu Province, in the course of implementing targeted poverty alleviation, cooperated with Alipay to raise 100 yuan online for each of the county's 132,600 poor people, to be used to buy commercial insurance covering risks such as major illness, accidental injury, and house damage; poor students admitted to senior high school or university can also receive several thousand yuan in subsidy. Over more than two months, more than 200 claims have already occurred, with cumulative payouts of more than 710,000 yuan, and education subsidies are still being distributed one after another. What is especially commendable is that the amount and use of this public welfare donation are all "put online," insured farmer households can check their policies at any time in their Alipay accounts on their phones, and claim payouts and education subsidies are all paid directly into individual accounts.
In this process, the county-level management department is the supervisor of fund use, while the village committee is merely a service provider that investigates villagers' circumstances; relevant personnel never get their hands on any "grease," and in moving from managing money to managing affairs, the transformation of government functions has succeeded, and its reputation for integrity is commendable. The individuals and enterprises that donate and the insurance company make the use of funds public, leaving no place to hide for such tactics as fraudulent fundraising or reluctance to pay claims, and their credibility is praiseworthy. The third-party payment platform, while earning transaction flow and expanding its market, reassures farmers and saves the government worry, greatly enhancing its reputation. Such "going online" achieves a win-win for all parties.
Following this approach, one can imagine that many farmers today have smartphones in hand, most of them registered under real names, and there is more than one or two mobile payment platforms. Technically speaking, various agriculture-related subsidy funds and compensation payments could try to draw on the "network" to achieve "point-to-point" payment to farmer households, while at the same time providing instant SMS notifications and anytime public inquiry services whether funds arrive or are transferred, so as to prevent farmers' money from being fraudulently claimed or intercepted by others. At the same time, similar matters such as the public disclosure of land expropriation and demolition compensation and insurance claim payouts can also be mass-sent in a "rural friends circle" on mobile phones, enabling villagers scattered across the world to supervise and to raise questions and appeals through the mobile internet platform.
Of course, to realize such a beautiful "picture," many problems still need to be solved. For example, after handing over the payment function for some funds to a third-party platform, the supervisory capacity of management departments must keep up, so as to ensure the security of farmers' personal information and strictly guard against online and telecom fraud. In addition, it should also be made clear that third-party payment platforms must uphold the principle of operating on slim profits, ensure that farmers' original interests are not discounted, and commit to using the advantages of big data to feed back information on the payment of various funds, reflect the real demand for quasi-public goods such as agricultural insurance, and provide reference for management departments to adjust and improve policies.
The internet has changed many things in this era, filling us with trepidation and curiosity, and also inspiring our courage. In order to ensure that every cent farmers deserve is safely gathered into the granary, let "Internet Plus" also show its prowess.