Authorities crack down on pointless formalities

Series of measures implemented to help ease burdens at grassroots level

Discipline inspection and supervision bodies at all levels dealt with more than 69,000 cases of formalism and bureaucratism from January to November last year, punishing 53,000 officials for such practices, according to the country’s top disciplinary and supervisory watchdog.

The figures were released ahead of the Fifth Plenary Session of the 19th Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the Communist Party of China, which is scheduled to start on Friday.

As the Party leadership is committed to improving the work style of Party members and ease the burdens for grassroots employees, tackling pointless formalities and bureaucracy was stressed at the Fourth Plenary Session of the 19th Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the CPC in January last year, the annual work meeting of the watchdog.

Such behavior includes not implementing the major decisions and arrangements of the central leadership, being divorced from reality and the people and holding excessive meetings, as well as issuing documents and making inspections that have placed a serious burden on grassroots employees, according to the watchdog.

Over the past year, a series of measures were implemented to tackle the problem of pointless formalities and help ease burdens at the grassroots level. These efforts were led by Xi Jinping, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, who has repeatedly warned against bureaucratism and formalism.

At meetings of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee presided over by Xi last year, the topic of improving the work style of Party members and officials was discussed many times.

In February, when China was engaged in a fierce battle against COVID-19, Xi criticized pointless formalities in epidemic response found in some areas, such as various departments asking community workers to repeatedly fill out the same kind of forms.

Efforts must be made to ensure grassroots officials are able to focus their energies on front-line epidemic prevention and control, Xi said.

Over the past year, more video and telephone meetings replaced on-site meetings. The changes, partly due to epidemic control requirements, helped grassroots officials save time by reducing the number of meetings.

Over 85 percent of officials polled in a survey by the General Office of the CPC Central Committee said the burdens brought about by formalism had been eased last year.

Chen Yankun, an official in Wuhua district of Kunming, Yunnan province, said, “In the first half of last year, I only had two meetings at the district level.”

With fewer unnecessary meetings as the central leadership promoted reducing the burden on grassroots employees, Chen, who sometimes used to have to attend three meetings in a morning and struggle with asking for leave to attend meetings, said she had more time to go to neighborhoods and talk with residents.

Qiu Xumei, a grassroots official in Minqin county, Gansu province, said: “Inspections were streamlined and more standardized last year. When inspection teams came, they investigated by themselves to find problems, rather than looking at the materials and listening to our reports, which reduced the burden on the departments being inspected.”

Heavy loads

Last year, the disciplinary watchdog dealt with 580 cases involving the imposition of heavy burdens on grassroots employees through excessive meetings, inspections and appraisals, official data showed.

A development blueprint drawn up by the Party leadership for the 14th Five-Year Plan period (202125) and through 2035 has underscored the need to continue correcting the practices of formalism and bureaucratism.

A meeting of the central special working mechanism for reducing the burden on the grassroots by tackling pointless formalities was held in Beijing on Jan 14.

The meeting said efforts to improve the work style of officials in the past year provided a guarantee for promoting epidemic prevention and control, economic and social development and winning the battle against poverty.