Recently, a series of educational corruption cases exposed in Anhui revealed the "hidden corruption high-incidence area" of educational administrative examination and approval. According to statistics, Miao, former deputy director of the Anhui Provincial Department of Education and former director of the Basic Education Department, has paid bribes to nearly 100 universities, vocational colleges, technical secondary schools, middle schools and other schools since last year, and the number of bribes has reached hundreds.
Why do these schools send money to officials of the education administration department? What are the "tricky" and "rent-seeking space" in education examination and approval? What harm will education examination and approval corruption cause? Half a month, the reporter conducted an investigation.
Schools send money in droves, and officials fall in waves.
"I plead guilty and repent. I hope my case can warn my friends around me, tie up the fence of honesty and self-discipline, and don't become the prey of people with ulterior motives!" A few days ago, Yuan Wensheng burst into tears at the trial site of Huoshan County Court in Anhui Province.
Yuan Wen's "people with ulterior motives" are mostly leaders of some schools in Anhui. According to the examination of the procuratorial organs, 34 of the 36 bribery cases in Yuan Wen since 2008 came from various schools, including undergraduate 1 1, junior college and higher vocational college, and secondary school 1.
According to statistics, these schools remitted 130 times to Wenyuan in a few years, totaling 1.5 million yuan. Their "ulterior motives" are actually not "special", mainly because they want to use the power in Yuan Wen's hands to make a batch enrollment plan, upgrade the junior college to the cost department or rename the school.
In the corruption case of Anhui Education Department, Yuan Wen is not the only one who "schools send money in succession".
According to the prosecution's accusation, Yang Delin, the former director and later promoted to deputy director of the Anhui Provincial Department of Education, took bribes from 18 school 42 times.
Miao, a colleague and former director of the Basic Education Department of Anhui Provincial Department of Education, has accepted bribes from 39 middle school principals and 6 directors of district and county education bureaus for 95 times, providing "care" for provincial model high schools in terms of appraising the excellent and evaluating the first, standardizing the supervision of school-running behavior, and approving projects.
"Anhui's education administrative examination and approval corruption involves a wide range, and the number of bribes is beyond our expectation, which is more prominent in the field of duty crimes!" A case handler said.
The enrollment plan is corrupt: the "real power department" holds the "lifeline" of the school, and the "approval flexibility" becomes the "rent-seeking secret door"
"In the provincial education administrative departments, there is a big difference between the' real power department' and the' unpopular department'. The "real power department" has many people during the day and often has dinner at night. " An official of the Education Department of Anhui Province said that after the 18th National Congress, he apparently had less food, but the secret "blending of power and money" could not stop.
According to the reporter's investigation, several officials who fell in the corruption case of the Education Department of Anhui Province all came from the "real power department" with the power of examination and approval. For example, Yuan successively led the Planning and Finance Department (later divided into the Development Planning Department and the Finance Department), responsible for drafting the enrollment plans of provincial universities and technical secondary schools in the province, guiding senior high schools to formulate enrollment plans, and reporting and reviewing the establishment, cancellation and renaming of schools.
"Recruit one more student, and your income will increase. The enrollment plan can be said to be the' lifeline' of the school." According to the relevant person in charge of a provincial university in Anhui, the annual enrollment plan of the school should be reported to the Financial Planning Department of the Provincial Department of Education for approval. The enrollment plan of the whole province has a general plan, and there is competition among schools. "The more you give him, the less you get, so many schools are scrambling to get in touch with the provincial offices."
According to Yuan Wen's indictment, almost all the 34 schools that paid bribes to him were related to the enrollment plan, and some schools even "managed" for a long time in order to win more plans. For example, from 2007 to 20 16, the vice president of a college gave Yuan Wen cash and shopping cards six times before the Spring Festival; From 20 10 to 20 14, a vice president and a dean of a university gave Yuan Wen a shopping card of 46,000 yuan five times.
Corruption in the establishment and upgrading of schools: in order to obtain "golden signboard", dozens of schools "spend money on public relations"
The establishment and upgrading of schools has also become an important aspect of "approving rent-seeking". According to the investigation of the case-handling organ, the biggest bribe received by Yang Delin and Yuan Wen respectively came from a businessman named Zhang Mingliang, who paid 550,000 yuan to Yang Delin, 465,000 yuan to Wenyuan and 10 gold bar in order to set up a vocational and technical college.
Upgrading from higher vocational colleges to undergraduate courses means that their school-running ability and teaching level are recognized. The "undergraduate signboard" with higher gold content brings better reputation, students and income. The indictment shows that in recent years, many private higher vocational colleges in Anhui Province have paid bribes in the process of upgrading their undergraduate courses.
In recent years, many provinces in China have started the selection of "provincial model high schools", and the selected schools are equivalent to obtaining a "golden signboard". In the Anhui Provincial Department of Education, the basic education department is responsible for formulating the evaluation standards and guiding the implementation of "provincial demonstration high schools". Miao Guo Fu, the former director of the department, accepted bribes from 39 middle schools during the evaluation.
The logic of bribery: running a school for profit is intertwined with the expansion of officials' selfish desires.
According to the reporter's investigation, as a briber in the education corruption case, the schools involved have a strong impulse to seek profits, and they will not hesitate to "approve public relations" by bribery and gain benefits by means of administrative power.
"Evaluation of provincial demonstration high schools, the principal's level can be raised from the section to the metre, and the school's tuition fee is raised from 350 yuan to 850 yuan every semester. Students can be given priority when enrolling students. " The headmaster of a middle school in Anhui said that the golden signboard of "model high school" is related to fame, income and political achievements, so the leaders of the school and the city and county education system are very enthusiastic. Some people try their best to find relationships through various channels, and sending money is just one of the means.
One more enrollment index can recruit one more student, which means a sum of tuition and other income. Under the background that higher education resources are still relatively scarce, many social capitals "regard schools as enterprises and education as undertakings" and pay bribes for upgrading undergraduate courses and enrolling more students.
According to the investigation of the case-handling organ, the relevant person in charge of Anhui Wenda Group paid 32,000 yuan to Yang Delin for 8 times and 6,543.8+0.59 million yuan to Wenyuan for 6 times, so as to make plans for the promotion of Anhui Wenda Information Technology Vocational College.
After "promotion", Wenda Information Engineering College became the "cash cow" of Wenda Group. In 20 15, the debt of wenda group was nearly 2 billion yuan, which led to the closure or suspension of many garden, training and internet enterprises. The huge annual tuition fee of Wenda College has become a bargaining chip for debt repayment.
Examining and approving corruption subverts "educational value", and experts call for "simple administration and decentralization"
In addition to school public relations and personal greed, there are deep-seated reasons for the corruption of Anhui Education Department: the allocation and management of educational resources are too centralized.
A fallen horse official said in an interview that the establishment, specialty setting and enrollment plan of all provincial universities in the province, as well as the professional title evaluation and teacher transfer of some school faculty, must be approved by the provincial education department; Education funds from higher education departments and financial departments are allocated to education departments and concentrated in some offices.
Yang Dongping, a professor at Beijing Institute of Technology who has been studying education for a long time and a member of the National Education Advisory Committee, believes that the core of modernizing the government's governance system and governance capacity in the field of education is to simplify administration and decentralize power, so as to change the situation that the government assumes too many responsibilities.
"The Third Plenary Session of the 18 th CPC Central Committee put forward the requirement of deepening education reform, with the goal of promoting the separation of education management, management and classification, and promoting the transformation of government functions." Yang Dongping said that the goal is clear, but the reform efforts in some places are limited. "The Anhui education corruption case once again reminds us of the necessity of decentralization of education."