Chapter 92 Making something out of nothing
After listening to Bai Yuhang's story, Qi Tongwei finally understood why Shuanghe was so poor. It was because all the subsidies and development funds went into his own pockets.
In fact, both Yantai City and Dabeihu County are very supportive of this township, which is ranked last in the city. The support funds allocated each year have always been among the top townships.
However, these funds were not used to develop the economy and improve people's livelihood. Almost all of them went into personal pockets and became funds for leading cadres to support mistresses and send their children to study abroad.
No wonder there is a saying in later generations that as long as all the leaders who have served as the top leaders of any unit are taken down and all their assets are used to pay for military expenses, my country’s military expenditure will scare the whole world to death!
The only thing missing from the account book was the prostitution funds. My mother's nightclub expenses were actually reimbursed. (This really happened. It took 12 years for things to get back on track.)
"What does the 430, Bai 2 you wrote mean?" Qi Tongwei asked while flipping through Bai Yuhang's account book.
Bai Yuhang was silent for a moment, then slowly said, "Around 1990, the old secretary Li Youjun started to complain because he could not get promoted.
From that time on, he no longer cared much about government work and was only concerned about making money.
So under his leadership, everyone followed his example, squandering financial funds and making huge money.
Some deputy positions also got reimbursed for their expenses at nightclubs, and when asked, they seemed quite reasonable, saying that they were doing it to accompany investors.
I wasn’t that bold in the past two years, so I paid attention to some of the impacts.
The biggest haul was last year, when 430 million yuan of river management funds were directly embezzled and divided up.”
"Wait, how much did you say? 430 million yuan!" Qi Tongwei raised his voice.
He couldn't believe what 430 million meant.
Take wages for example. Nowadays, ordinary cadres earn about 200 yuan a month, which will increase to more than 30 yuan in the future, almost 430 times. Year-on-year, 1.29 million yuan is equivalent to million yuan.
It is hard to believe that so much money could be embezzled at the township level.
"Yes, Secretary Qi. 430 means 430 million, and Bai 2 means my 2." Bai Yuhang explained in a low voice.
"Can you tell me in detail?"
"Last March, the central government allocated 3 million yuan, the provincial and municipal governments matched 300 million yuan, and our county also provided 100 yuan in matching funds, totaling 30 million yuan, to repair rivers and dams.
Because Secretary Li Youjun was about to retire, he was ready to make a quick buck and leave, so he set his sights on this money.
Because this money is a special fund from the central government, it is difficult to handle.
After May, weather forecasts have been reporting heavy rain and flood disasters in the Yantai City area.
I don’t know who came up with the idea, but it was to use the flood to create something out of nothing.”
Seeing Qi Tongwei was a little confused, he continued to explain: "To create something out of nothing means to pretend that a project has been implemented without actually being implemented. They first held a party committee meeting and revised the original project plan.
There are 12 construction sites in the entire Shuanghe Town. There are not many people at each construction site, and they work slowly.
More than a month after the construction started, a flood broke out and they lied that the project was destroyed by the flood when it was more than half completed, resulting in a loss of 1 million yuan.
After the flood, they used the villagers along the way as an excuse to compensate them with 110 million yuan, but in fact the villagers only received less than 30 yuan.
After listening to this, Qi Tongwei asked in confusion: "The higher authorities should also know when the rainstorm will occur. Didn't they urge the construction and remind you?
And they are sure there will be a flood?"
"I don't know if anyone warned them or not. As for the flood, they naturally didn't know about it. It would have been the best if it had happened. They quietly took away 430 million yuan.
If there is no outbreak, they will find other ways.”
“How did the superiors handle it after the flood?”
"Li Youjun reported to his superiors and said that he had modified the plan without authorization in order to speed up the construction process.
Unexpectedly, lack of consideration slowed down the construction progress and eventually the project was destroyed by floods, causing huge losses. He bears the main responsibility and requests the organization to handle it.
Later, the superiors considered that Secretary Li Youjun did not make mistakes intentionally and his starting point was good, so they made a decision and let him retire early. "
Qi Tongwei slowly leaned back in his chair. He knew without thinking that the superior had also taken the money.
He didn't expect it could be played this way?
He was a little angry. The central government, provincial governments and municipalities had finally supported a project, but it was divided up so blatantly.
"Tell me, who are involved?" Qi Tongwei asked through gritting his teeth.
"In the township, there are Li Youjun, Wang Maocai, and Sun Xiaofei, and in the county, there are Liu Wenqing, deputy director of the Audit Bureau, Sun Jian, director of the Water Affairs Bureau, and Huang Kexiong, captain of the Water Conservation Team.
Because the accounts had to go through my hands, I was given 2 yuan." Bai Yuhang said with his head down.
"Did you leave any evidence?"
"I left it. Since I took 2 yuan, they trusted me. Plus, the money had to go through my hands, so I left the evidence." Bai Yuhang said in a low voice.
Qi Tongwei breathed a sigh of relief when he heard that there was evidence.
If it weren't for the problem with Xiaoqiaogou School, I wouldn't have checked the accounts. If I hadn't checked the accounts, Bai Yuhang wouldn't have taken the initiative to explain. If another two years had passed, this matter would have been buried like a flood.
I'm afraid even the general public or government officials thought that the project was really destroyed by the flood. These people can think of anything to make money.
If all these thoughts were put into economic development, Shuanghe's economy would not have reached this point, and there would not be a situation where a family shares one pair of cotton trousers.
I was originally planning to continue the research, but now it seems that it is not possible.
Qi Tongwei called Ma Tao and told him that he would be responsible for collecting the materials arranged at today's Party Committee meeting, and he would go to the county to apply for funds.
After giving the instructions, Qi Tongwei took Bai Yuhang and Zhao Shikun to the county town.
Seeing that Qi Tongwei took the accountant to the county town, everyone thought he was really going to apply for funds and no one paid attention to it.
After arriving in the county town, Qi Tongwei contacted the director of the county party committee office and learned that Secretary Zhou had a meeting tomorrow morning and would arrive at the unit at 8 a.m.
That night, Qi Tongwei and his team stayed at the Dabeihu County Guesthouse, guarding the information and waiting to hand it over to Secretary Zhou Guichun the next day.
Silent all night.
The next morning, Qi Tongwei took the information to the county government and waited for Secretary Zhou at 8 o'clock.
"Are you serious?" Zhou Guichun looked incredulous.
"Yes, Secretary Zhou." Qi Tongwei immediately recounted what had happened in detail and handed him the information.
Zhou Guichun suppressed his shock and slowly flipped through the information.
The more he looked, the more shocked he was. He knew about the flood last year and had always thought that this project was a work error. He did not expect it to be man-made. For this reason, he even went to the provincial party committee and government to make a self-examination.
"Damn, these scums." Zhou Guichun was so angry that his lungs were about to explode. These bastards were making money and he had to bear the punishment.
"Secretary Zhou, what do you think we should do?" Qi Tongwei asked cautiously.
"Of course we will investigate it thoroughly." Zhou Guichun said without hesitation.
"Secretary Zhou, do you know how much money the Shuanghe government has in its account now? 2!" Qi Tongwei asked himself and answered.
"2?" Zhou Guichun seemed to have heard the funniest joke. There was only 8 in a government account.
"Yes, 2. I estimate that there will be only 8 left now. I will use the 8 to have someone repair the classrooms in Xiaoqiaogou." Qi Tongwei explained.
Zhou Guichun looked at Qi Tongwei and didn't know what to say. He never expected this to be the case.
"Secretary Zhou, can you please return all the illegal funds to our Shuanghe? You also know the problems in Shuanghe and it is in urgent need of development funds." Qi Tongwei took the opportunity to say.
“Well, this money originally belonged to Shuanghe Town. It would be a joke if we only had 8 yuan left in a government account.
Please wait for a moment. There will be a standing committee meeting later. After the meeting, you can go to County Magistrate Li and ask him to allocate some funds to Shuanghe for emergency response. "Zhou Guichun also knew that a good cook cannot cook without rice.
"Thank you, Secretary Zhou. I thank you on behalf of the 4 people of Shuanghe." Qi Tongwei said gratefully.
"Okay, just wait in my office. I'll go to the meeting first and arrange the investigation after the meeting." After Zhou Guichun said this, he went to attend the meeting.