What thoughts of the villagers are reflected in the most awesome official seal in history?

"The most awesome chapter in history."

Some people believe that the "Wuhe Zhang" implies the concepts of decentralization, checks and balances, and democratic financial management. Its emergence may inspire more people to explore broader soil for cultivating rural grassroots democracy.

The villagers were distrustful and forced to issue the "Wuhezhang"

Going to Guiye Village requires several transfers. Starting from Guiyang City, after an 8-hour drive of about 400 kilometers, we arrived at Jinping County, which is part of the Qiandongnan Miao and Dong Autonomous Prefecture, and then passed a 22-kilometer long stone-paved mountain road to Pingqiu Town. Guiye Village is still in the mountains 11 kilometers away from Pingqiu Town. Since the flood in June this year, the shuttle bus from the town to there is still not available.

The beautiful Guiye Village is a key poverty-stricken village in the country. Every year, the town finance allocates 5,000 yuan to the village for office expenses, and occasionally the village receives some poverty alleviation grants. Apart from this, the village has no other income. However, over the years, how and where these few public funds are used has often caused dissatisfaction and questioning among villagers.

The village committee publishes its accounts in the village affairs disclosure column every year as required, but it still arouses doubts from villagers, and some even tear up the published list in public to show their dissatisfaction.

On February 21, 2006, Tan Hongyong, secretary of the village party branch, convened 10 villagers to brainstorm ideas. "Can we engrave an audit seal and divide it into five petals? Each of the four village groups chooses a representative plus a branch committee member. Each of the five people is responsible for one petal. The village's expenses must be approved by at least three of them. Combine the five petals and stamp them," suggested Tan Hongyuan, a 53-year-old accountant in the village. Giving the villagers the right to audit financial affairs is more trustworthy than signing a pledge. His proposal was approved by the village committee.

Tan Hongyong’s later words are very reasonable: the previous kind of financial disclosure was not called “announcement”, but just “notification”. The purpose of implementing the five-petal chapter is to allow village representatives to supervise in advance.

Only two yuan of tofu money can be repaid if the five-petal seals are combined into one piece

Tan Hongyuan is a well-known "capable man" in the village. He is a carpenter and stonemason, and he also knows how to carve. He is a "democratic financial manager" The task of engraving "Zhang" naturally fell on his head. He found a piece of local pear wood about 5 centimeters long, divided it into five petals, fixed the pear wood on a wedge usually used to engrave private seals, and repeatedly wrote the 14 words "Audited by the Democratic Financial Management Group of Guiye Village, Pingqiu Town" After calculating the position and gap, first carve the three characters "Pingqiu Town", and then carve the other petals one after another.

On December 3, the reporter witnessed this seal, which is called China's "most awesome official seal in history" in the office of Guiye Village Committee. The medallion composed of five wedge-shaped wooden blocks was placed in a disposable plastic water cup, with the words "Pingqiu Town", "Guiye Village", "Democratic Management", "Financial Group" and "Audit" written on it. When used, five wedge-shaped wooden blocks need to be combined to form a complete official seal, with a five-pointed star in the center.

Because the wood has shrunk over time, the gaps between the flaps have become obvious. The combined seals show the words "Audited by the Democratic Financial Management Group of Guiye Village, Pingqiu Town". The reporter noticed that this official seal is different from other financial audit official seals in that it has the word "democracy" added. Tan Hongyuan also answered reporters' questions. According to his simple logic, "Democracy is about realizing everyone's intentions." This is more transparent than signing or pressing fingerprints.

After the "Wuhe Zhang" was carved, the village committee held an important meeting. The reporter saw from the minutes of the village meeting on April 3, 2006 that in the classroom of the village primary school that day, all the villagers elected four village representatives, including Tan Junhan, Tan Juntao, Tan Yuanyu, and Tan Hongcan, and five people including village party branch member Tan Hongyuan. Form a village financial management group. Because some members went out to work for long periods of time, on June 9, Murakami re-elected Tan Hongyuan, Tan Hongcan, Tan Hongquan, Tan Hongjiang, and Yang Renbing to form a financial management group.

Since the adoption of the "Wuhe Zhang", villagers have no more financial complaints about the village committee. In the account book provided by Tan Hongyuan, the reporter saw that there were a wide variety of expense items that were reimbursed after review, including transportation fees, office supplies, closed-circuit television fees, entertainment expenses, etc.

Among them, the smallest expense was one yuan spent on a bottle of glue for posting slogans, and the largest expense was custom-made ecological environment warning signs, which cost 272 yuan.

Tan Hongyuan said that at the grassroots level in mountainous rural areas, expenditure on entertainment expenses is inevitable but is also the most likely to cause dissatisfaction among the masses. The financial management team’s account records are extremely detailed. In the account book presented by Tan Hongyuan, the expenditure on April 17, 2007 was as follows: “3 kilograms of rice wine × 1.7 yuan = 5.1 yuan, two pieces of tofu for 2 yuan, and 3.8 kilograms of pork legs × 7 yuan = 26.6 yuan, a pack of desert cigarettes is 12 yuan, and entertaining Secretary Chen of the county party committee to inspect the work in our village (the amount of expenditure) is 45.7 yuan."

Experts

Democratic financial management deserves recognition

On July 18, 2007, the Jinping County Commission for Discipline Inspection issued the "On the Implementation of the "Five-Headed" in Rural Areas of the County Chapter "Notice on Financial Management Measures" requires all township party committees and governments to report the implementation status before the end of December.

At this point, the sample effect of the "Wuhezhang" financial management system in Guiye Village has been produced. The local government requires all townships in the county to popularize the "Wuhezhang" as a financial management system in rural areas. And the practice is drawing attention across the country.

Guangming.com commented that the success of the "Wuhezhang" is the result of the democratic financial management group's conscientious exercise of its own supervisory power, realizing the transformation of village-level governance from "making decisions for the people" to "making decisions for the people themselves" "Lord" transformation.

Some experts believe that this method of financial management actually coincides with the principle of "separation of powers and checks and balances." This approach truly realizes the transformation from openness of results to openness of processes, from autocratic decision-making to democratic decision-making, from vertical supervision to horizontal supervision, and from responsibility above to responsibility below. With these changes, it is at least not that easy for village cadres to wantonly squander the hard-earned money of villagers. As one of China's nearly 700,000 administrative villages, Guiye Village's exemplary role in democratic financial management is worthy of recognition.

Online Comments

Cultivation of democratic soil is more important

According to the reporter’s understanding, although the Jinping County Government requires all towns and villages in the county to adopt the "Five Joint Chapters" as a This financial management system has been popularized in various towns and villages, but the current implementation effect is not obvious. Only a few villages have followed suit. Many villages are still "sitting and watching." As for how to implement it, the local government has not yet issued a clear plan.

The problem has returned to its original point. "Democratic elections, democratic decision-making, democratic management, and democratic supervision" may vary during the implementation process. Perhaps Guiye Village's "Wuhezhang" democratic financial management method is ultimately just a small sample in the process of villagers' self-governance, but as an online commentator said: We cannot be completely fooled by the peculiar appearance of "the most awesome official seal in history" Attractive and creative, its emergence should be the product of the emergence and development of local villagers' democratic consciousness. The "Wuhe Zhang" is only a carrier of power supervision and checks and balances. Other villages that want to follow the practices of Guiye Village should see that the cultivation of the democratic soil that produces the "Wuhe Zhang" is more important than the "Wuhe Zhang".