Chapter 572: with translation of chapter title

At the five-person meeting, seeing three people support Gao Shuo, Deputy Secretary Li Mingyang said: "I have no objection to Comrade Gao Shuo; speaking factually, during this period of research, many comrades privately complained to me, having opinions about Nanyuan City's frequent promotion of cadres; we should heed the voices from the grassroots."

Governor Liu Linghao retorted: "Some people just have 'red-eye disease'; seeing other cadres get promoted and reused, they start sniping, why don't they reflect on themselves? Do they have any noteworthy achievements? Gao Shuo, in Nanyuan City overseeing commerce, transportation, and culture and tourism, has achievements evident to all, especially tourism work, directly pushing tourism revenue to first in the province— isn't Nanyuan's tourism resources not first in the province? If anyone can produce such outstanding results, I would be the first to recommend promoting them."

Tang Bing declared in one sentence: "Let Gao Shuo be the head of the Zhoukou Municipal Organization Department! The personnel orientation acts as a 'wind vane'; the Provincial Party Committee must always uphold the standard of good cadres, selecting and employing good cadres who are loyal, clean, responsible, and hardworking; selecting and employing good cadres who are willing to undertake tasks, able to undertake tasks, and capable of accomplishing tasks, so that people can make full use of their talents, thereby giving everyone hope and motivation, and truly inspiring the broad masses of cadres to dare to take responsibility and act boldly."

January 8, the Provincial Organization Department completed the relevant procedures for cadre adjustments and filed them with the superior department.

January 8–11 were the last four days for reporting the year's economic indicators; Lu Fan personally called Su Xiang Hai, urging him to overcome difficulties, strictly implement, focus on targets, take initiative; focus on problems, strengthen support; focus on implementation, improve services; focus on the overall situation, enhance coordination, to ensure the completion of all economic indicator tasks.

Su Xiang Hai firmly expressed his stance, saying everything was under control and guaranteeing the completion of the trillion-yuan GDP target!

January 10, the Provincial Party Committee convened a standing committee meeting to study thematic education, foreign affairs, publicity of ideological culture, young cadre team building, rural revitalization, and cadre adjustment work; the Organization Department's personnel adjustment plan was unanimously approved.

After the document was issued, it sparked widespread discussion across the province. Yang Jiajian was transferred to the Provincial Organization Department, Gao Shuo to the Zhoukou Municipal Organization Department, and Lu Fan gradually gained control of the organization system.

But what drew the most attention in this adjustment was that the Director of the Transportation Department, Ren Zhihong, and the Director of the Provincial Market Supervision Bureau, Zheng Fengyu, were swapped; rumors had already spread in the Standing Committee, and their lateral transfers were due to institutional reform considerations.

Now it's the turn of the Transportation Department and the Market Supervision Bureau to be in a state of panic!

January 11 morning, Lu Fan personally held a pre-assignment talk with the newly appointed leaders.

At 8:30 a. m., Market Supervision Bureau Director Ren Zhihong was the first to arrive at the minister's office.

After sitting down, Lu Fan smiled and said, "Comrade Ren Zhihong, do you know why I recommended you to the Provincial Party Committee for the Provincial Market Supervision Bureau?"

Ren Zhihong slightly shook his head and said, "Minister, regardless of the reason, I obey the organization's assignment; I will immediately hand over my work at the Transportation Department and wholeheartedly devote myself to the work of the Market Supervision Bureau."

Lu Fan nodded satisfactorily and said, "The Transportation Department has seen four consecutive bureau chiefs fall from grace; before taking office, they all made solemn pledges—some wrote blood letters to the Provincial Party Committee declaring they would not take a single cent from others and would not do anything wrong against the organization; some put forward the slogan: let integrity extend along the province's highways; some said they would learn from the lessons of blood, feeling that 'a single character of integrity is worth a thousand gold,' expressing that 'ill-gotten gains are not taken, and personal favor projects are not undertaken.' These resounding 'integrity declarations' still seem to ring in my ears, yet those who swore them have all ended up in prison."

Only you have smoothly completed your term; dissatisfied, you say the Provincial Discipline Inspection Committee investigated you—that was my request.

I greatly appreciate your "hard rules": no matter who, discussing matters cannot be done at home, only in the office; no matter who brings gifts, regardless of value, they are all thrown out the door.

The reform of the geology and mineral system is wrapping up; the bloated, redundant Provincial Market Supervision Bureau will become the second pilot unit, needing an excellent leading cadre with principles and methods, daring to tackle tough issues, unafraid to offend people, and willing to fight against corrupt practices to 'come down hard.' Going back and forth, I immediately thought of you, and personally requested you from Secretary Tang Bing.

Comrade Ren Zhihong, you won't hold a grudge against me in your heart, will you?

Hearing these words, Ren Zhihong was somewhat moved, and without hesitation said, "Thank you, Minister, for your trust; I will definitely, in accordance with the requirements of the Provincial Party Committee and the reform leading group, thoroughly overhaul the market supervision system!"

Lu Fan then asked, "Ren Zhihong, may I ask how we can effectively implement supervision of leading cadres?"

Ren Zhihong thought and replied, "Minister, I personally feel that we cannot rely on leaders to constrain themselves morally; we should use institutions so that officials' hands cannot reach illegal money, and when they attempt to reach for illegal money, they can be caught by law and public opinion."

The current supervision mechanism is mostly peer supervision, thus lacking sufficient authority and being single; we should have comprehensive, multi-level supervision, enabling media and the public to effectively supervise officials' conduct.

……

After chatting for half an hour, Lu Fan said, "If you have any problems, report to me at any time. All the leadership positions with excess staffing in the Market Supervision Bureau are to be handed over to me, and the Organization Department will uniformly conduct a second allocation. The institutional reform will be fully handled by Deputy Minister Gao Shuo; later you will find him to connect."

"Okay, if there's anything, Minister, just call me anytime."

At 9 o'clock, Deputy Minister Gao Shuo pushed the door open, somewhat excitedly saying, "Minister, I'm reporting for duty!"

Lu Fan smiled and said, "Last week I had you familiarize yourself with the institutional reform work; you haven't been slacking, have you?"

"Minister, I have gone through all the documents several times, and I have also carefully studied your speech on institutional reform; I basically know how to proceed."

"There's no time for you to slowly get used to the work; starting today, the heavy responsibility of provincial institutional reform falls on your shoulders; you must immediately enter work mode, immediately guide the institutional reform of the Provincial Transportation Department and Market Supervision Bureau, to have plaques up within two weeks, and staff in place, minds settled, and actions taken within one month!"

"Okay, Minister, I will start work immediately."

They are old partners, very familiar with each other; Lu Fan need not explain much about the cadres of Nanyuan City.

At 3 p. m., the Provincial Market Supervision Bureau held a meeting of all cadres, with the head of the Provincial Organization Department, Lu Fan, personally seeing Ren Zhihong off to assume office.

At the meeting, Lu Fan pointed out that the entire system must raise its political stance; Comrade Ren Zhihong should bravely shoulder the pilot responsibility, align with the Provincial Party Committee's deployment, and unswervingly implement the key reform tasks, not failing to meet the Provincial Party Committee's high expectations and trust. We must clarify the reform goals and task requirements, speed up drafting the 'three determinations' plans for each public institution, and coordinate to properly handle integration and reorganization work. Through reform, we will further clarify functional positioning, sort out responsibilities and powers, streamline institutional mechanisms, optimize structural layout, strengthen public welfare attributes, truly enabling public institution reform to yield vitality, efficiency, and a new realm of market supervision work, providing replicable and promotable experience for public institution reform across the province.

Lu Fan emphasized that public institution reform is a serious political task; we must uphold discipline first, strengthen coordination and cooperation, strengthen disciplinary constraints, and ensure that reform tasks are completed on schedule and to quality. Discipline inspection and supervision must run through the entire process and all links of public institution reform; all leading cadres of the system must strictly observe political discipline, organizational discipline, personnel and staffing discipline, integrity discipline, and confidentiality discipline, to foster a clean and upright reform atmosphere with vigor.

At 4:30 p. m., Lu Fan also attended the meeting of all cadres of the Provincial Transportation Department, seeing Zheng Fengyu off to assume office, and similarly put forward specific requirements for the institutional reform of the transportation system.

After Ren Zhihong assumed office, he did not disappoint Lu Fan's trust; he immediately began deploying the institutional reform, personally planning the abolition and merger of public institutions, and after consulting with Deputy Minister Gao Shuo of the Organization Department, decided to merge all public institutions of the Provincial Market Supervision Bureau into nine, with considerable intensity; the institutional reform is proceeding vigorously, and all staff of the system are standing ready.

January 15 morning, Provincial Statistics Bureau Director Guo Huaiming rushed to Lu Fan's office, beaming with joy, and reported: "Minister, all provincial economic indicators have been submitted; my preliminary calculation shows that Nanyuan City's GDP is estimated to reach 10786 billion yuan!"

Hearing this news, Lu Fan was very pleased and said, "We can only confirm after feedback from the National Bureau of Statistics; now is not the time to celebrate! Huaiming, how are Nanyuan's other indicators?"

Guo Huaiming replied with a smile: "As always, excellent! The 16 hard indicators continue to top the province, especially fiscal revenue growth, urban and rural residents' two incomes, fixed asset investment, above-scale industrial growth, and investment promotion results—these core indicators far outpace the second place, leaving no doubt that Nanyuan ranks first in this year's assessment. Minister, you have created achievements unprecedented in Huayuan Province!"

After discussing the economic indicators, Lu Fan asked, "Huaiming, you need to plan ahead for the institutional reform of the Statistics Bureau's public institutions; by February, all provincial-level departments must fully launch it."

Guo Huaiming replied, "Minister, I came today to report work, and another purpose is to seek your guidance on whether you have any specific requirements for the reform of our Statistics Bureau."

Lu Fan thought and said, "Public institutions suffer from problems such as overall excessive size, inactive mechanisms, redundant staffing; or being too small with limited business capacity, low service quality and efficiency; or overlapping functions, duplicate setup, waste of resources; or conflating public welfare and market, with public institutions 'occupying both ends' of the market."

This reform requires that, among the public institutions subordinate to each provincial-level department, those with a staffing quota of 20 or fewer may retain at most one; the total number of institution units must be streamlined by at least 20%, and the total staffing quota by at least 15%; you shall implement accordingly. For staffing that cannot be digested in the short term, the quota may first be approved, with only exits and no new hires. For example, your unit's population survey team and population census office have similar functions; such units must be merged.

"Okay, Minister, I will promptly produce the reform plan for the Statistics Bureau."

Lu Fan rose from the grassroots step by step; he knows public institutions inside out, and will personally vet the reform plan for each department.