The internal control system of financial institutions has always been very strict. However, the recent incident of irregular distribution of salaries and bonuses at the Cangzhou Rural Credit Cooperatives Union in Hebei Province is shocking! This financial institution has 61 regular employees, and in just over two years, they distributed more than 3 million yuan in various forms to the employees, with an average overpayment of about 56,000 yuan per person in 2009, equivalent to the income of ordinary citizens in the area for three or four years.
Shangbao, Jinan message (reporter Ji Qiang) Yesterday, our newspaper's A14 edition published a report on the excessive distribution of annual leave wages by the Cangzhou Rural Credit Cooperatives Union in Hebei Province, drawing widespread social attention. In the afternoon of April 13, a relevant person in charge of the Hebei Rural Credit Cooperatives Union called our reporter, stating that the investigation and handling results had already been publicly announced to society. According to information obtained by the reporter, based on the announced investigation results, several responsible persons from the Cangzhou Rural Credit Cooperatives Union received different types of disciplinary actions.
In the announcement, the Hebei Rural Credit Cooperatives Union stated that the main issues existing in the Cangzhou Rural Credit Cooperatives Union were: violating regulations to excessively distribute annual leave wages, exceeding the base amount in distributing wages according to wage management regulations, and improperly establishing county-package awards without following decision-making procedures and lacking adequate evaluations. "In the distribution of annual leave wages, the Cangzhou Rural Credit Cooperatives Union did not deduct the normal working period salary income of the employees but instead distributed it at 400% of their daily wage income, causing excessive distribution of annual leave wages."
As an independent corporate legal person, the municipal rural credit union can legally and compliantly formulate related reward and punishment methods, but there were problems such as procedural violations and only rewarding without penalizing when formulating reward methods."
According to the publication by the Hebei Rural Credit Cooperatives Union, after the preliminary fact-finding by the investigation team of the provincial rural credit union, the Cangzhou Rural Credit Cooperatives Union immediately rectified the situation. By April 7, the irregularly over-distributed wages were returned.
Additionally, according to relevant regulations, the provincial rural credit union recently held a special meeting for serious accountability. After deliberation, it was decided to give a demerit to the chairman of the municipal rural credit union; warnings to the director and supervisor of the municipal rural credit union respectively; admonitory talks to the deputy director in charge of finance; major demerits to the head of the human resources department; and demerits to the head of the finance department.
The Hebei Rural Credit Cooperatives Union expressed that, in addition to ordering the Cangzhou Rural Credit Cooperatives Union to fully return the irregularly over-distributed wages, further strengthening of institutional management and standardization of their own behavior will be conducted to prevent all kinds of non-compliance issues from happening.
The irregular issuance of salaries at the Cangzhou Rural Credit Cooperatives Union has been confirmed.
"Unaware" of policies, employees received ten thousand yuan more in overtime pay each year.
In early March, a letter exposing issues such as the misuse of wages at the Cangzhou Rural Credit Cooperatives Union was sent to the Hebei Provincial Rural Credit Cooperative Union and some news agencies. The whistleblower claimed that the Cangzhou Rural Credit Cooperatives Union excessively issued wages and bonuses, turning the union employees into "high-income aristocrats."
The whistleblower attached the "annual leave wage table" of the Cangzhou Rural Credit Cooperatives Union. Partial verified data showed that the former supervisor general Ha and the human resources manager Wang had daily incomes reaching more than 1400 yuan and 960 yuan respectively, roughly calculating annual incomes of about 360,000 yuan and 250,000 yuan. The incomes of the leadership team and general staff could thus be inferred.
The reporter's investigation found that daily wage income was an important aspect. "Our city-level cooperative union's performance wage base is as high as 6113.2 yuan, far exceeding the standard set by the provincial cooperative union," said the whistleblower. Investigations confirmed that in April 2010, the Hebei Rural Credit Cooperatives Union determined the 2009 annual performance wage base for the Cangzhou Rural Credit Cooperatives Union to be 4930 yuan, an increase of 24% compared to the previous year. However, the Cangzhou Rural Credit Cooperatives Union arbitrarily increased this by another 24%, reaching 6113.2 yuan.
Establishing county-package awards, some earned over ten thousand yuan monthly.
In September 2009, the Cangzhou Rural Credit Cooperatives Union launched the "Agency Cadres Package County (Bank) Supervision and Main Index Performance Assessment Implementation Plan," rewarding agency cadres whose package counties (banks) completed key business indicators, assessed and paid out monthly. From the chairman to general employees, rewards ranged from 12,000 yuan to 3,600 yuan per month. In 2010, this cooperative union introduced new assessment methods, adjusting the reward standards to 4,000 yuan per month for leadership members, 3,000 yuan for middle-level cadres, 2,000 yuan for general employees, and 1,000 yuan for borrowed personnel.
"Our city-level cooperative union is a first-tier legal entity, and we have the authority to establish some reward policies to incentivize employee work," said Zhou Bojian. However, the Hebei Rural Credit Cooperatives Union's investigation believed that this county-package reward method was not reviewed by the council or the member assembly of the city-level cooperative union, violating the articles of association and relevant regulations of the municipal rural credit union.
Annual leave compensation, with some receiving over 20,000 yuan more annually.
The "2010 Annual Leave Wage Table" attached to the whistleblower letter showed that unutilized annual leave compensation ranged from over 64,000 yuan to 8,000 yuan.
According to regulations: "Unutilized annual leave wage compensation should be paid at 300% of daily wage income, which includes the employer's payment of the employee's normal working period wage income." According to the provincial rural credit union's investigation, this cooperative union, on top of regularly distributing wages, added another 300%, effectively making it 400% of daily wage income. Thus calculated, the highest overpayment in the "2010 Annual Leave Wage Table" was over 20,000 yuan. The responsible person of this cooperative union explained, "The 300% includes normal working period wage income as stated in the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security supplementary regulations, which they failed to timely understand, resulting in an additional 300% being distributed."
Investigations revealed that this action caused an average overpayment of 0.63 ten thousand yuan per person in 2009, and 1.1 ten thousand yuan in 2010. Over the two years, approximately 1 million yuan was overpaid in total unutilized annual leave compensation, with all funds being fully returned recently.
According to Xinhua News Agency