Yangtze Evening News, by Liu Jian, Li Dongmei, and Miao Fenghao - Whether it be major coal mine safety accidents or tailing dam failures, there are always prosecutors who arrive on the scene at the first moment, delving into the major accident sites to work alongside other national administrative management departments. They uncover layer upon layer of truth about how these accidents occurred and dig deep into the dereliction of duty crimes that lie behind them.
On the 24th, at the Anti-Dereliction and Infringement Bureau of the Liaoning Provincial Procuratorate, it was learned that from 2007 up to the third quarter of this year, the anti-dereliction and infringement departments of the three-level procuratorates in Liaoning Province have simultaneously intervened in the investigation of 384 responsibility accidents, investigating 83 cases involving 109 state functionaries for dereliction of duty crimes related to these accidents. In 2007 alone, they simultaneously intervened in the investigation of 204 responsibility accidents, investigating 33 cases involving 53 individuals for dereliction of duty crimes. In 2008, they simultaneously intervened in the investigation of 143 responsibility accidents, investigating 39 cases involving 42 individuals for dereliction of duty crimes. From January to September 2009, they simultaneously intervened in the investigation of 37 responsibility accidents, investigating 11 cases involving 14 individuals for dereliction of duty crimes.
Through a series of dry numbers, reporters found that due to the intervention of the procuratorial organs, compared with 2006, the number of incidents in Liaoning Province dropped by 43.7%, and the death toll decreased by 13.1%. In 2008 compared to the previous year, the number of incidents in the province dropped by 28.8%, and the death toll decreased by 14.6%. From January to September 2009 compared to the same period last year, the number of incidents in the province dropped by 24.6%, and the death toll decreased by 23.7%.
Du Yingchun, Director of the Anti-Dereliction and Infringement Bureau of the Liaoning Provincial Procuratorate, introduced to the reporter, "The evidence involved in dereliction of duty crimes related to accidents mostly has strong time sensitivity. Simultaneous intervention in accident investigations helps timely collect, fix, and identify evidence. If not collected and fixed in time, some of this evidence would disappear over time. At the same time, during the accident investigation process, the accident investigation team will expose those behaviors attempting to cover up the truth and identify false evidence. Simultaneous intervention in accident investigations will help the procuratorial organs discover crime clues and ascertain criminal facts."
When talking about investigating dereliction of duty crimes behind accidents, Director Du Yingchun said that the simultaneous intervention of Liaoning's procuratorial organs had three effective strategies, which effectively punished dereliction of duty crimes and better curbed the high incidence of major responsibility accidents.
Start from investigating the performance of daily supervision duties by the safety production supervision agencies.
On September 4, 2008, a gas explosion occurred at the eighth coal mine in Hexi Town, Qinghemen District, Fuxin City, Liaoning Province. The accident resulted in 27 deaths, 2 serious injuries, and 4 minor injuries.
After the accident, the Anti-Dereliction Bureau of the Liaoning Provincial Procuratorate quickly dispatched personnel to Hexi Town, Qinghemen District, Fuxin City. Together with the officers from the Anti-Dereliction Bureau of the Fuxin City Procuratorate, they simultaneously intervened in the accident investigation.
Through the investigation of the performance of daily supervision duties by the safety production supervision agencies, the case-handling officers discovered severe problems.
Before the accident, this coal mine had been regarded as an advanced unit in safety production in Qinghemen District, even in Fuxin City. From the beginning of 2008 to the occurrence of the accident, various levels of safety supervision agencies conducted dozens of safety inspections on this coal mine. During a safety inspection in March, it was discovered that the working face of the mine was illegally conducting positive pressure coal mining, presenting a significant safety hazard. According to law, the coal mine should have been ordered to permanently seal off the working face. However, the safety supervision personnel merely instructed the cessation of coal mining operations at the working face but did not require permanent sealing. No penalties were given for the violation of positive pressure coal mining. In subsequent safety supervision, the supervisors never seriously inspected on-site and turned a blind eye to the illegal production operations of the coal mine for more than six months. It was precisely because the supervision work was formalistic that this accident occurred.
In this accident, former Deputy Director Li Baoqing of the Coal Administration Bureau of Qinghemen District, Fuxin City, and coal administration bureau inspector Li Hanyang among six others were respectively sentenced by the court for dereliction of duty, exempted from criminal punishment.
According to the understanding, according to the provisions of the "Safety Production Law," safety production supervision agencies legally perform safety production supervision duties, including administrative licensing and daily safety production supervision of production units. Some state functionaries, while performing their daily supervision duties, turn a blind eye to violations such as illegal production and risky operations at the accident units, fail to correct what should be corrected, fail to penalize what should be penalized, and fail to close down or revoke licenses when required, leading to the failure to promptly correct and stop the hidden dangers existing at the accident units, causing accidents.
First Strategy: "In our intervention in accident investigations, we pay attention to collecting materials reflecting the fulfillment of supervisory responsibilities by relevant supervisory agencies, such as job descriptions, on-site inspection records, on-site inspection decision documents, etc., to discover their dereliction of duty behaviors."
Start from reviewing the administrative licensing responsibilities performed by safety production supervision agencies.
At 7:45 am on April 18, 2007, in the production workshop of Qinghe Special Steel Co., Ltd. in Tieling City, Liaoning Province, a steel ladle containing approximately 30 tons of molten steel suddenly slipped and overturned while being hoisted 2-3 meters above the ingot truck. The steel ladle fell towards the shift change room, flooding the room with molten steel, resulting in the immediate death of 32 employees who were holding a pre-shift meeting in the shift change room. Additionally, six furnace operators were injured, two of whom were seriously injured.
After the accident, the officers from the Anti-Dereliction Bureau of the Liaoning Provincial Procuratorate and the Anti-Dereliction Bureau of the Tieling City Procuratorate urgently arrived at the accident site in Qinghe from Shenyang and Tieling. Under the leadership of the Supreme People's Procuratorate, the provincial, municipal, and county-level procuratorates in Liaoning cooperated closely with the State Council's "April 18" Accident Investigation Team. Relying on the investigation of the cause of the accident and the determination of responsibility by the State Council Accident Investigation Team, they meticulously argued the causal relationship between the behavior of the involved personnel and the occurrence of the accident. At the same time, they diligently studied relevant documents such as the "Regulations on Safety Supervision of Special Equipment" and the "Electric Furnace (Vacuum Induction Sintering Furnace is a complete set of equipment designed under vacuum or protective atmosphere conditions using the principle of medium-frequency induction heating to achieve sintering of hard alloy cutting heads and various metal powder compacts, designed for industrial production of hard alloys, metal dysprosium, ceramic materials.) Steelmaking Knowledge Q&A," promptly resolving technical issues in the investigation of the case. Finally, it was determined that Wang, the director of the Special Equipment Inspection Room One of the Tieling Special Equipment Supervision and Inspection Institute, and inspector Zheng, when conducting supervision inspections on the crane used for transporting the molten steel ladle in the main span of the plant, issued a "Supervision Inspection" qualified report without reviewing the production qualifications of the dehumidifier manufacturer; issued a single-item qualified conclusion in the absence of complete technical data from the manufacturing company. During the installation acceptance inspection, they were extremely irresponsible and did not conduct inspections according to the prescribed procedures. Even though the protection grade of the crane's electrical control equipment did not meet safety regulations, they still issued a "Acceptance Inspection" qualified report. This caused the crane to operate with unresolved safety hazards, resulting in a malfunction and overturning during the operation of transporting the molten steel ladle, leading to the accident.
According to journalists' understanding, Wang and Zheng, suspected of dereliction of duty, were prosecuted in court and are currently under trial.
In practice, the accident units often lack the necessary safety production conditions but obtain relevant qualifications or certifications despite non-compliance with safety facilities and conditions requirements, thus engaging in unauthorized production and business activities, forming major safety hazards, which is an important reason for the occurrence of major responsibility accidents.
Second Strategy: "In our intervention in accident investigations, we first review whether the certificates and qualifications of the accident units are complete and legally valid, discovering dereliction of duty behaviors such as abuse of power, dereliction of duty, favoritism, and corruption hidden behind the accidents."
Start from investigating the safety production situation of the accident units.
At around 6 am on May 11, 2008, an unlicensed illegal operation vessel sank due to overloading at the sea area located at 123 degrees 59 minutes East Longitude and 39 degrees 14 minutes North Latitude. After being rescued by fishing boat No. 25536 of Liaodong, 19 people were saved. After the incident, the captain and crew of the sunken ship concealed the truth and falsely claimed that all the drowning victims had been rescued. The Dandong Municipal Government, based on public reports, ascertained that there were another 10 deaths and one missing person, making it a major maritime traffic accident.
After the accident, the Liaoning Provincial Procuratorate, Dandong City Procuratorate, and Donggang City Procuratorate urgently arrived at the accident site. During the intervention in the accident investigation, the case-handling prosecutors, through participating in the specific investigation activities of the accident investigation team, discovered many abnormal phenomena. Tracing back from the results, they uncovered case clues of suspected dereliction of duty crimes committed by staff members of the fishery supervision department and the public security border defense department during the performance of their safety supervision duties.
From the purchase of the accident vessel to the occurrence of the accident over three years, the vessel, as a "triple-no vessel" (no name, no port of registry, no vessel certificate), had no vessel data and had not undergone any vessel inspection. None of the crew members possessed the appropriate qualifications. However, the vessel had been docked long-term at the Laogen Wharf in Donggang, illegally engaged in marine fishery activities for a long time. The Fishery Port Supervision Department conducted multiple checks and spot checks on this fishery port but never raised any questions about this vessel. The Public Security Border Defense Department also illegally processed annual inspections for the vessel twice.
The Discipline Inspection Commission and Supervision Bureau of Dandong City gave seven relevant individuals who bore leadership and administrative supervision responsibilities in this incident party warnings, revocation of administrative positions, and other organizational and administrative punishments.
Accident units often lack safety production conditions or have chaotic safety production management but continue to violate regulations and engage in risky operations for a long time.
Third Strategy: "In the intervention in accident investigations, attention should be paid to investigating the safety production conditions and safety production management situation of the accident units, paying attention to discovering these abnormal phenomena, using this to investigate whether there are dereliction of duty crimes committed by state functionaries."
During the interview, reporters from Yangtze Evening News further learned that Liaoning's procuratorial organs have established and improved the mechanism for simultaneous intervention in accident investigations, playing a positive role. This mechanism mainly includes four aspects:
Establishing an accident information communication and sharing system. The Liaoning Provincial Procuratorate issued a document clearly requiring each city (division) procuratorate and its subordinate grassroots procuratorates to report every responsibility accident that occurs in their jurisdiction, especially major responsibility accidents with more than 3 deaths and concealed accidents, which must be immediately reported to the provincial procuratorate.
Establishing and implementing a special person responsible for intervening in accident investigation system. Currently, the Liaoning Provincial Procuratorate and the entire province's 16 city (division) procuratorates and 124 grassroots procuratorates have all assigned dedicated personnel responsible for this work. Through a year of practical work, a large number of specialized talents for intervening in responsibility accident investigations have been cultivated.
Exploring and improving the transfer of official crime cases work mechanism. Transferring official crime cases involved in accidents according to the suggestions of the procuratorial organs has become a mandatory procedure in Liaoning's accident investigation work, officially establishing the transfer of official crime cases as a working mechanism. Not only does it effectively standardize the accident investigation activities of the investigation teams, but it also greatly alleviates the difficulties and resistance faced by procuratorial organs in investigating official crime cases related to accidents.
Further strengthening the guidance and supervision work of the provincial procuratorate on the lower-level procuratorates' intervention in accident investigations. When the provincial procuratorate discovers problems in the lower-level procuratorates' intervention in accident investigations and investigation of official crime cases related to accidents, it immediately dispatches personnel to guide and supervise the intervention in accident investigation work.
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