"Please present the village's small and micro engineering project bidding documents and the project quality supervision responsibility list." A few days ago, staff from the Discipline Inspection and Supervision Working Committee of the Chengdu Eastern New Area, Sichuan Province, came to Jiajia Subdistrict to carry out supervision and inspection of the construction and management of small and micro engineering projects.

"When we conducted case analysis of small and micro engineering projects in towns (subdistricts), we found that many cases share common problems, such as non-standard bidding procedures, including bid rigging and collusion, and favoritism toward relatives and friends; inadequate implementation of project quality supervision responsibilities, and inaccurate verification by functional departments of cutting corners and arbitrary design changes during project implementation, resulting in inflated project cost reports, among other issues." A relevant responsible official of the Discipline Inspection and Supervision Working Committee of the Chengdu Eastern New Area explained that they are promoting reform and governance through cases, urging relevant functional units to improve bidding systems to avoid deliberately setting exclusive clauses; strengthening quality inspection and verification of engineering quantities to ensure that workloads and unit prices are genuine and reasonable, and preventing false reporting and unauthorized cost increases.

The Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Commission for Discipline Inspection emphasized the need to strengthen case analysis, put forward targeted and persuasive rectification opinions, and urge and coordinate relevant departments to carry out special governance. The field of small and micro engineering projects is extensive, involves many points and large amounts of funds, and is prone to breeding "micro-corruption." Discipline inspection and supervision organs in various localities have started with deepening case analysis of small and micro engineering projects, identifying the root causes and applying targeted treatment, promoting special governance, and using effective supervision to ensure that small and micro engineering projects truly benefit the people.

The Discipline Inspection and Supervision Committee of Xiaoshan District, Hangzhou City, Zhejiang Province, analyzed the prominent manifestations, causes, and solutions to corruption problems in this field based on typical small and micro engineering cases investigated over the past three years. "The process management of small and micro engineering projects is relatively dispersed, and management authority involves multiple departments, making it prone to the phenomenon of 'nine dragons managing the water' (fragmented and overlapping authority)." A relevant responsible official of the district discipline inspection and supervision committee explained. The committee pushed the district government to issue management measures for a full-cycle supervision system for engineering projects, clarifying that the district Development and Reform Bureau is the coordinating lead department, organically unifying management functions previously scattered across various departments and stages, promoting the formation of a large joint supervision pattern across multiple departments, and further compressing the space for rent-seeking.

To identify the focus of supervision in the small and micro engineering field, the Discipline Inspection and Supervision Committee of Xishan District, Wuxi City, Jiangsu Province, strengthened case analysis and conducted in-depth research at the front line. "Problems such as unauthorized contracting without procedures, illegal splitting of contracts, false contracting after construction, inadequate supervision of project implementation, and lax gatekeeping in project acceptance are the main manifestations of disciplinary and legal violations in this field. Chaotic procedures and absent supervision are important reasons for the frequent occurrence of corruption." A relevant responsible official of the Xishan District Discipline Inspection and Supervision Committee said that, with a focus on enhancing openness and transparency in key links such as project contracting, the committee promoted reform of the voting system for small and micro engineering projects below the threshold. After the procurement announcement is published, suppliers sign up voluntarily, and judges are randomly selected from a judge pool to vote on suppliers. "We have improved the training, supervision, assessment, and exit mechanisms for judges to enhance their professionalism; at the same time, we have established a supervision information management platform, incorporating the voting work for small and micro engineering projects in all towns (subdistricts) into platform management, achieving full-process supervision that is queryable, capable of early warning, and open to reporting. Since the voting reform, more than 1,000 small and micro engineering projects have been generated through voting across the district, involving more than 300 million yuan in funds."

Rural small and micro engineering projects are the "booster" for rural revitalization and development, connected to the economy on one end and people's livelihood on the other. However, many notified cases show that some grassroots cadres use small and micro engineering projects for personal gain and corruption.

A few days ago, Luo, former director of the Agricultural Service Center of Yongxi Subdistrict, Nayong County, Bijie City, Guizhou Province, obtained more than 25,000 yuan in project construction funds for the access road to an industrial base in the jurisdiction through false reporting and fraudulent claims. He also had other disciplinary issues and was dealt with seriously. Combining similar typical cases, the county discipline inspection and supervision committee promoted systematic rectification, leveraged the advantages of regional collaboration to carry out special supervision, and comprehensively used methods such as listed supervision, cross-case handling, and leadership-assigned case handling to address disciplinary and illegal acts such as false reporting and fraudulent claims, and soliciting and accepting bribes in the implementation of rural small and micro engineering projects.

The Guizhou Provincial Discipline Inspection and Supervision Committee strengthened case analysis in the field of rural small and micro engineering projects, focused on problems found in recent years through petition reports, supervision and inspection, review and investigation, and inspection tours, sorted out supervision lists, and treated case handling as an effective lever. "Rural small and micro engineering projects have many types and scattered funds, and in addition some grassroots Party organizations have incomplete decision-making, management, and supervision systems, leading to the occasional occurrence of 'micro-corruption.'" A relevant responsible official of the Guizhou Provincial Discipline Inspection and Supervision Committee explained that the province is deeply investigating and thoroughly addressing chaos such as bid rigging and collusion, splitting projects to evade public bidding, lax quality supervision and acceptance review, and delaying settlement of project payments, and seriously investigating and dealing with corruption problems such as Party members and cadres improperly intervening in project construction, favoritism toward relatives and friends, black-box operations, and fraudulent claims for project funds.

When reviewing cases in the small and micro engineering field, the Discipline Inspection and Supervision Committee of Guilin City, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, found that some staff of functional departments had poor work styles, failed to perform their duties, and went through the motions in review and gatekeeping; some village cadres "plucked feathers as geese flew past" (took a cut at every opportunity), using approval power or fund distribution power to set explicit prices for project contracting, and even withholding and privately dividing project funds. In response to these problems, the city discipline inspection and supervision committee promoted the construction of a big data supervision platform in the small and micro engineering project field, established 47 data models including project initiation decisions, project approval, and fund management, developed functional modules such as comprehensive query and situation analysis, cumulatively entered more than 3,600 bidding projects, collected more than 14,000 relevant data entries, and promoted the platform's connection with seven systems including the Guangxi Investment Project Online Approval and Supervision Platform, achieving full-process management and full-coverage supervision.

In response to problems exposed by similar cases, such as insufficient information disclosure and black-box operations, the Discipline Inspection and Supervision Committee of Yanping District, Nanping City, Fujian Province, promoted the establishment of a "sunshine platform" for supervision of grassroots small and micro projects, making the entire bidding process public, traceable, and transparent, facilitating fair and free participation of business entities in project procurement activities, and "exposing" the entire process of small and micro engineering projects to the sunshine.