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Local environmental inspectors find problems
“The head of the base section” is difficult to administer to the “Official of the State Enterprise Department”
Expert advice to build an environmental protection chain supervision system
The second round of the Central Environmental Protection Inspector briefed China Minmetals Corporation and China National Chemical Corporation on the status of the inspection recently, noting that these two central companies have trouble understanding the importance of ecological environmental protection, environmental pollution and risks slopes. This is the first time that the Central Environmental Protection Inspector has supervised central companies, raising concerns from central companies about pollution problems.
According to a recent survey by reporters from the Economic Reference News, core companies with strong strength and a strong sense of social responsibility have always pioneered China’s environmental protection cause, however, due to poor mechanisms and large numbers. of debts, some central companies have repeatedly fined. Deficiencies in the responsibility for environmental protection, such as unclear figures and superficial management; on the other hand, some of the subordinate companies of the central companies have high-level and superior psychology, and some localities depend on central government taxes. “Guests”, local supervision does not dare to face the difficult dilemmas of law enforcement.
Core cadres interviewed, environmentalists, and business managers believe that solving the pollution problem of central companies requires optimizing the monitoring mechanism for central companies, strengthening internal restrictions, and building an environmental law enforcement system. authorized and fair.
A small number of core companies are not optimistic about the illegal environment.
China Minmetals Group Co., Ltd. is a strategic reorganization of the former Fortune 500 companies of China Minmetals and China Metallurgical Group, with metal minerals as the main core business, and has 8 listed companies. China National Chemical Corporation, which is also a Fortune 500 company, is China’s largest chemical company, its business involves new specialized chemical and chemical materials, petroleum processing and refining products, and owns 9 listed companies.
The environmental risks of metal ores and the chemical industry are high, and there are many contamination problems. Many local companies from China Minmetals Corporation and China National Chemical Corporation were named in the first round of central environmental protection inspection due to contamination problems. In July of last year, the second round of the Central Environmental Protection Inspectorate was located for the first time at these two state-owned companies, and the signal issued was very obvious: in addition to local party and government departments to strictly implement accountability. For the main environmental protection, companies, especially central companies, are equally responsible.
Associate Professor at Beijing Normal University Liu Xingang believes that, in general, most central companies are pioneers in protecting the environment. Central companies have made two large investments in environmental protection in the 1970s and 1980s and around 2015.
The Central Environmental Protection Inspectorate released the inspection situation on May 11, noting that China Minmetals Group and China Chemical Industry Group have four main problems: inadequate thinking, ineffective implementation of main responsibilities, weak implementation of rectification, outstanding environmental pollution and hidden risks, Reflect the common problems of central companies in environmental governance.
According to the interviews, most central companies are found to better perform their environmental protection responsibilities, however, due to the large scale, many branches and different operating conditions, some central companies are not optimistic about environmental violations.
First, some state companies have been repeatedly fined and compromised. An environmental law enforcement official in a Chongqing district told reporters that due to the rapid development of the development, local noise nuisance complaints accounted for more than half of environmental complaints. Due to the characteristics of the slag trucks that cannot enter the city during the day, the continuity of the construction spill and the need to rush the construction of key projects, it is difficult to monitor noise pollution in the construction industry , and a large part of the project contractors are central companies.
Second, due to the large number of participating companies, some central companies have unclear contamination and disclosure. Xiang Chun, director of the Guangzhou Green Network Environmental Protection Service, and Fu Furan said there are tens of thousands of 96 state-owned companies, and some branches have more difficult statistics due to their complicated capital and different names. “A central company headquarters asked local branches to report environmental violations. Some local branches did not report or under-reported. The central company headquarters had to ask us for data,” said Xiang Chun.
Third, a small number of central companies have been unable to cure the pollution problem. In the second round of the Central Environmental Protection Inspector, several typical cases of contamination by central companies were noted: Shanghai Zhenhua Group affiliated with China Communications Construction Group, China Minmetals Corporation Ganxian Hongjin Rare Earth Company and Yingkou Zhongban Company, and China Chemical Group Guizhou Tianzhu Chemical Heohua Honghe Chemical has been ignoring its environmental violations for a long time, and some companies have superficially responded to the problems pointed out by the first round of environmental protection inspectors and “looked back”, and even resorted to deception.
For example, Guizhou Tianzhu Chemical Co., Ltd. committed a fraud in rectifying the slag yard problem and deliberately concealed the fact that the slag yard did not build anti-filtration facilities according to the standard. The inspector discovered that the company’s barium slag was sent directly to the slag deposit for disposal in landfills without any disposal or testing. The average concentration of barium and its compounds in the barium leached liquid is as high as 2000 mg / L, which is more than 12 times the standard of the landfill.
Multiple factors hinder effective implementation of local supervision
Strict supervision is the key link to protect ecology. The reporter learned from the investigation that some branches of state companies have a high level and that there is a phenomenon of “bosses in charge of directors” at the grassroots level. It is difficult for local regulatory authorities to effectively implement environmental oversight. A small number of state-owned companies have superior psychology and “bullying in stores”, do not pay attention to local supervision, or even do not cooperate. At the same time, some localities depend on central companies for taxation and taxes.
A district-level environmental department in a western city interviewed local companies directly under the central government for environmental issues. The relevant person in charge of the company did not come, and only one young man was sent to participate. Local law enforcement officials said, “People think you are an attached department-level chart who interviews our tables at the office level. There is no use interviewing this guy. He went back and told the supervisor to at best, top leaders may not know. ” A city in northern China A table from the Eco-Environmental Bureau shared the same sentiment: “The level of state-owned enterprises is generally higher, there are more concerns to monitor, and law enforcement is somewhat helpless.”
Liu Xingang, an associate professor at Beijing Normal University who has been involved in environmental governance in many places, believes that some local branches of central companies are department-level units, while the county-level ecological and environmental offices they oversee Central companies are often department-level units. He reported that a county environmental department in Henan province issued a 1.5 million yuan fine to a local state-owned company. “A formal department-level unit has to punish companies at the department level. It’s hard to think about it.”
The journalist discovered that some of the companies belonging to the state company claimed to be self-identified and “deceived customers”. The inspector found that some companies in the China National Chemical Corporation and China Minmetals Group were weak in law enforcement and ignored local oversight. For example, Shenyang Paraffin Chemical Co., Ltd., which belongs to the National Chemical Corporation of China, has been administratively sanctioned 9 times for environmental violations, with a cumulative amount of 2.19 million yuan, but the company refused to pay a fine and tried to transfer responsibility for the administrative penalty to a third-party environmental engineering company. ; China Shaanxi Metal Industry Heavy Industry Equipment Co., Ltd., Hunan Nonferrous Metals Group Corporation, Hengyang Shuikoushan Jinxin Lead Industry Co., Ltd. and other companies will not accept or cooperate with local supervision.
A base environmental protection panel in a western city told reporters that when the environmental protection department went to take samples, although subsidiaries of local state companies were subject to inspection, there were times when “internal regulations were required “Like registration to go through the door, and law enforcement officers only came to collect samples to delay time. .
On the other hand, some local governments rely on central business taxes and taxes and have their own considerations. A painting of a province in central China believes that if central companies and other large companies are willing to spend money to control pollution, if they do not govern, they will not affect local GDP, taxes, employment, etc. Therefore, some local governments are more inclined to maintain the status quo, “the rise of local central companies. By polluting, the upper department did not even demand any sanctions, and the local environment department was defenseless.”
Wu Qing, a partner at Jindu Law Firm, believes that from a local government perspective, environmental oversight and business management are primarily territorial responsibilities. The local government has environmental jurisdiction over companies in the administrative area. If it is a central company, there is no penalty or no penalty. Meeting the requirements, inaction or misconduct will be suspected.
Lack of awareness
Core companies are large-scale, have capital advantages, technology and political support, and must play a demonstrative role in pollution control. However, the journalist learned that the reasons why some central companies have significant environmental problems, in addition to regulatory problems, are mainly due to a lack of environmental awareness and poor management mechanisms, and some older companies have a great load of environmental debts, that exist in the treatment of the ground and the elimination of residues. technical challenge
“Environmental protection is important when talking about it, and it is secondary when it is done” it still exists in some central companies. The inspector noted that only one person at the headquarters of the China National Chemical Corporation is responsible for environmental management. The safety and environmental protection departments of many secondary companies were only established in December 2018.
The director of the office of environmental protection of a state-level economic development zone in a western city said that the main evaluation of some central companies is still efficiency. In terms of environmental protection, they only consider “accident free”. Regional environmental quality is responsible. For example, the Economic Development Zone encourages companies to comprehensively manage atmospheric emissions and gives companies no more than 30% investment subsidies. Private companies are very active, but central companies are passive. A person in charge of the Anhuan Department of a local subsidiary of a central company told reporters that the strict implementation of environmental protection standards would offend people and affect the performance, bonuses and positions of other departments.
At the same time, some local subsidiaries of some core companies are former local state-owned companies that were acquired, with overdue facilities and equipment, aging staff, and relatively overdue products. However, to protect assets, some companies are delayed in updating the production equipment and environmental protection, resulting in lagged pollution control. A deputy general manager of a provincial branch of a central company said that in recent years, the company’s environmental protection facilities have been updated “slowly and slowly” because the company spent a lot of money in 2016 and 2017 to control air pollution. In this case, again, it is more difficult to request environmental renewal funds from the company headquarters. ” There are also local branches of central companies that have less autonomy in directing investment in environmental protection, and it takes longer to coordinate headquarters and declare funds. For example, a person in charge of a local branch of a central company told reporters that after the company reported to the central office to upgrade its equipment, it took more than half a year to select adaptive technology and offers.
Furthermore, in some industrial fields, pollution control is difficult, and related technology research and development, investment, and political support are insufficient.
Sinochem Chongqing Fuling Chemical, which was built near the Yangtze River, was acquired and controlled by China Sinochem in 2004. Due to the company’s unreasonable design and the difficulty of digesting the phosphogypsum stock, in accordance with the requirements of the first round of Central environmental monitoring and rectification, the company stopped production and moved in 2019. According to officials from the local office for ecological environment, this company’s phospho-gypsum yard has millions of tons of phospho-gypsum, resulting in its Sewage treatment station continue to operate for more than ten years after the company relocates, and the annual cost is as high as 20-30 million yuan. The phospho-gypsum itself is a resource. Existing companies have developed resources such as production and construction materials, but due to insufficient reuse technology, low market acceptance of phospho-gypsum construction materials, and construction materials affected by sales radius and other factors , limited phospho-gypsum recycling. Policy and technical support in similar key areas for pollution control needs to be strengthened.
Break the “higher state” to ensure authoritative oversight
The cadres interviewed, companies and environmentalists said that while core companies have made significant contributions to national and local economic development, it is both a political endeavor and an attempt to promote their own high-quality development and effectively discharge their responsibility. environmental. They suggested that the central company supervision mechanism should be optimized according to the real situation of China’s central companies, and a system of supervision of the entire chain of systems, evaluations and personnel should be built.
On the one hand, in the design of the own environmental supervision system of central state companies, they can imitate localities and establish a system of party and government responsibility and a duty for central state companies. Production must be in charge of environmental protection. In view of the large number of branches of some central companies, the central company central office can establish an inspection and supervision system to effectively urge lower-level subsidiaries to perform environmental protection tasks; strengthen disclosure of environmental violations by central companies in accordance with the law, and you can entrust independent third parties to carry out regular statistics on pollution from central companies The report can be disclosed to society as important content for central companies fulfill your social responsibilities. At the same time, increase investment in research and development of pollution control facilities and technology by central companies, formulate upgrade and transformation plans for old subordinate companies, optimize the evaluation mechanism of central companies and cannot retain deleted facilities and equipment to protect assets.
On the other hand, it is also necessary to improve the local environmental supervision system for central companies, break the “superior status” of some subordinate institutions of central companies and guarantee unified and authorized environmental supervision. Consider establishing an environmental liability audit for heads of state-owned companies and major subordinate companies. If there is a violation of the law, in addition to financial penalties, staff liability can be investigated. It is also possible to further clarify the management rules for central companies to accept local environmental supervision and control, to eliminate the concept of administrative level. In addition to confidentiality, the pollution facilities of the central companies must be unconditionally inspected. Core companies can also be encouraged to innovate environmental management models, such as actively introducing “third-party governance of environmental pollution” and “environmental management” models, allowing professional people to do professional things. (Reporter Zhou Kai Wang Jinghuai Shi Weiyan)
