The comprehensive promotion of the rule of law in petition work has achieved significant phased results. The National Bureau of Letters and Visits will continue to carry out evaluations on the standardization of petition business construction
2024-07-12
In the past six months, significant phased results have been achieved in comprehensively promoting the legalization of petition work, driving the petition situation to continue to improve steadily. Efforts have been made in various regions to thoroughly investigate and resolve conflicts and disputes, effectively promoting leading cadres to receive and visit, and go to the grassroots level to resolve petition issues. A large number of conflicts and problems have been resolved in the local and embryonic stages. Comprehensively promoting the legalization of petition work is a major decision and deployment of the Party Central Committee, as well as a clear requirement of the "Regulations on Petition Work". On December 27, 2023, the Central Joint Conference on Petition Work held a national video conference to deploy the comprehensive promotion of the rule of law in petition work nationwide from January 1 this year. On July 7-8, the on-site meeting to promote the legalization of petition work (hereinafter referred to as the on-site meeting) was held in Xi'an, Shaanxi Province. Li Wenzhang, Deputy Minister of the Central Department of Social Work and Director of the National Bureau of Letters and Visits, pointed out that in the past six months, significant phased results have been achieved in comprehensively promoting the rule of law in the work of letters and visits, driving the continuous and stable improvement of the situation of letters and visits. Efforts have been made in various regions to thoroughly investigate and resolve conflicts and disputes, effectively promoting leading cadres to receive and visit, and go to the grassroots level to resolve petition issues. A large number of conflicts and problems have been resolved in the local and embryonic stages. The high-level promotion system planning reporter learned from the on-site meeting that in order to ensure the solid progress of key tasks in the legalization of petition work, the National Bureau of Letters and Visits held a national petition bureau director meeting at the beginning of this year, formulated the key points of petition work in 2024, and made the promotion of the legalization of petition work the main line and focus. The Office of the Joint Conference on Letters and Visits of the Central Committee conscientiously fulfills its responsibilities, establishes a legal liaison officer system, and sets up a work team to vigorously coordinate and supervise guidance. Each member unit of the Central Joint Conference on Petition Work shall improve and implement measures, strengthen business docking, and enhance system guidance. Each province, autonomous region, and city will comprehensively promote the legalization of petition work as an important agenda item. The Standing Committee of the Party Committee and the Executive Committee of the Government will study and deploy it, incorporate it into key work arrangements or major reform projects, and formulate implementation plans. The joint meetings of various levels of petition work shall hold regular meetings, dispatch and solve important problems, establish leadership groups or work teams composed of multiple departments, and continuously promote the implementation of various measures. Comprehensively promoting the legalization of petition work cannot be separated from the "five legations" and "four in place", that is, promoting the legalization of prevention and effectively implementing the responsibility of source governance; Promote the legalization of acceptance, clarify the nature, jurisdiction, and transfer supervision in place; Promote the rule of law in handling petitions, and handle them on time and in accordance with legal provisions and procedures; Promote the legalization of supervision and accountability, and firmly hold accountable public officials who abuse their power and neglect their duties; Promote the rule of law in maintaining order, and promptly handle illegal and criminal acts that disrupt social order in accordance with the law. The "Five Rule of Law" and "Four in Place" are an organic whole, jointly building the four beams and eight pillars of the rule of law in petition work. Since the beginning of this year, various regions and departments have closely focused on the goal of "every demand of the masses is handled by someone, and every demand of the masses is promoted in accordance with the law, achieving clear rights and responsibilities, clear numbers, lawful handling, good order, and satisfaction of the masses", fully implementing the "Regulations on Petition Work", focusing on promoting the legalization of petition work, promoting the standardized operation of petition work in accordance with laws and regulations, and resolving petition issues in accordance with policies and laws. Establish and improve institutional mechanisms to govern matters with small wisdom and systems with great wisdom. To comprehensively promote the legalization of petition work, it is necessary to continuously improve the system and mechanism of petition work. Since the beginning of this year, the National Bureau of Letters and Visits, together with the Office of the Central Committee for the Comprehensive Rule of Law, has issued the "Study Reader on the Rule of Law in Letters and Visits Work", formulated measures for fulfilling the responsibilities of proposing the "Three Suggestions" and 17 norms and guidance guidelines for basic letters and visits work, and uniformly designed 14 types of business documents, 12 types of notification documents, and electronic stamps. Institutional construction is the foundation for promoting the legalization of petition work When the reporter followed the attendees to observe at the Comprehensive Management Center of Chang'an District, Xi'an City, Shaanxi Province, the Secretary of Chang'an District Committee, Lv Qiang, introduced that "we have established 17 systems in three major categories: district, street, and village (community) standard guidance, assessment and evaluation, and supervision and accountability, in accordance with the relevant work requirements of the central, provincial, and municipal governments. We have clarified the three-level responsibility list, standardized the three-level handling process, strengthened the supervision of the whole process, and formed a preliminary legal system for the entire district's petition work." Chang'an District's approach is a microcosm of various regions and departments vigorously establishing rules and regulations, promoting the improvement of clear rights and responsibilities, and smooth connection of institutional mechanisms. Chongqing has established 9 work processes and standards, 42 document templates, and developed 5 work mechanisms including business standard evaluation and petition problem lists. Shanxi innovatively established a "one office, five groups" working mechanism consisting of a joint office for petition work and five special coordination groups, and adjusted the organizational structure of the provincial petition bureau in accordance with the requirements of rule of law. The member units of the Central Joint Conference on Letters and Visits have revised their business rules, issued guiding documents, and improved their respective departments and fields' 'guidance maps' in accordance with the' roadmap '. The Supreme People's Procuratorate has issued opinions on fully leveraging the role of procuratorial functions and deepening the legalization of petition work, consolidating and deepening the "reply to every case" system. The Organization Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, the National Development and Reform Commission, and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs have improved the list of legally classified handling of petition requests and formulated a "guide map" for handling petition matters in accordance with laws and regulations. Strengthening the informatization construction of letters and visits is the support for comprehensively promoting the legalization of letters and visits work, and we must vigorously promote the organic integration of informatization and legalization. Since the beginning of this year, the National Bureau of Letters and Visits has increased its efforts in information technology construction for letters and visits, with 69 central and state agencies accessing the National Letters and Visits Information System. At the same time, 33 new business functions of the national petition information system will be improved, and an information platform integrating multiple modules will be constructed. When the reporter followed the attendees to observe at the Xi'an Municipal Bureau of Letters and Visits, they saw the "Registration Form for Petitioners' Petition Process" in the Shaanxi Provincial Bureau of Letters and Visits' Rule of Law Statistics System. The form has 7 major items and 113 sub items, including registration, acceptance, processing, procedure termination, order maintenance, supervision and accountability, and quality evaluation. This table uses the three color management of "red, green, and blue" to fully grasp and dynamically monitor the process and progress of each step in the acceptance and handling of each petition matter. Green indicates the status of "being processed", blue indicates the status of "completed", and red indicates the status of "not following the procedure". Su Jiwen, Deputy Secretary General of the Xi'an Municipal Government and Director of the Letters and Visits Bureau, said, "Through information technology construction, it is possible to initially reflect the handling status throughout the entire process, reflect the petition situation throughout the entire time period, and promote the implementation of responsibilities throughout the entire chain. This provides data support for more accurate analysis of the situation, more precise supervision and accountability, and more refined guidance of work." Not only Xi'an, but also many regions and departments are conscientiously doing a good job in petition statistics, continuously accelerating the interconnection, functional optimization, and deep application of information platforms. Zhejiang Province is building a unified platform called 'People Call Me for', which automatically generates and regularly publishes the index of the legalization of petition work; Heilongjiang is building an intelligent comprehensive platform system for letters and visits that covers the entire chain, all elements, all coverage, all supervision, and all sharing; Jiangxi is promoting the construction of a "digital petition system" and developing functional modules such as leadership reception. The General Office of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, and the Ministry of Natural Resources will improve the relevant functions of the petition information system and promote the organic integration of informatization and rule of law. Intensifying supervision and guidance requires one point of deployment and nine points of implementation. We must closely monitor the resolution of problems and vigorously promote the timely and on-site resolution of petition matters in accordance with the law. To this end, the National Bureau of Letters and Visits has carried out in-depth governance of the source of petition issues, guided various regions to deepen the investigation and resolution of conflicts and disputes, vigorously promoted the reception and visit of leaders at all levels, and extended the mechanism of joint meetings for petition work to grassroots and frontline levels. The townships (streets) of 31 provinces, autonomous regions, municipalities, and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps have achieved full coverage. At the same time, we will vigorously supervise the handling of non-standard petition matters, organize and carry out evaluation activities for the standardization of petition business, and vigorously promote relevant functional departments to effectively fulfill their responsibilities. Each region and department, especially the petition department, strictly implement the requirements of the "Regulations on Petition Work", determine the scope of acceptance in accordance with the law, improve acceptance notification, strengthen education and guidance, and adhere to precise screening, precise diversion, and precise transfer. Fujian will unify and refine the input elements of petition registration information, enabling petition departments at all levels within the province to directly transfer petition documents to responsible units; Shanghai has established a "List of Classified Handling According to Law" for appeal and resolution matters; Hubei has established seven mechanisms, including the transfer of legal and litigation related matters and information sharing, to address the difficulty of separating litigation and visitation. In addition, various regions and departments have increased their supervision and guidance efforts. The National Bureau of Letters and Calls has carried out in-depth inspections, visits, and research, and conducted supervision and research in Yunnan, Guizhou, Hebei, Shanghai, Anhui, Henan, and other places. Hebei Province has established a normalized joint supervision mechanism between provinces and cities to supervise and handle key issues in promoting the rule of law in petition work. Tianjin, Henan, and Hunan will strengthen on-site inspections, promote the use of supervision as a substitute for training, and deepen the use of supervision for reform. It is reported that in the next step, the National Bureau of Letters and Visits will continue to carry out evaluations on the standardization of petition business, solidly promote the supervision of handling non-standard petition matters, promote centralized supervision in various regions, strengthen the process management and inspection effectiveness of petition matters, promote functional departments to strictly implement the "three in place and one handling" requirements, and achieve "case closure" in accordance with laws and regulations. At the same time, focusing on the provisions of Article 135 of the Regulations of the CPC on Disciplinary Punishment, we should promote the complaint reporting departments at all levels to perform their duties of "three suggestions", and strengthen supervision and inspection on the cases that have not been accepted and should not be handled. (New Society)