Chapter 278: The Audit Committee

“That’s right,” Wu De nodded. “In the face of interests, a person’s conscience and beliefs are all unreliable.”

Since the start of the grain collection and land survey, the demand for grassroots administrative personnel in the civil affairs department had greatly increased. Now, they were also responsible for disaster relief, and the scope of their involvement was growing. Wu De and his small number of transmigrators could not oversee everything and do everything themselves. He was particularly worried about this.

“But we are in political security work. We’ve never done anti-corruption—” Ran Yao thought, anti-corruption has never been the job of the public security organs. That’s the responsibility of the discipline inspection commission. The Transmigration Group really had no one who had worked in the supervision bureau or the discipline inspection commission.

“Everything has a beginning,” Wu De said. “There’s no such agency now. Why don’t you set one up?”

“It’s more appropriate for you to submit a report on this,” Ran Yao hesitated. It was not difficult to set up such a special agency—anti-corruption could also be considered within the scope of the internal affairs department. But in the current situation, anti-corruption work was much more complex than political security: the person in charge had to be familiar with the administrative system and know where the loopholes were; they had to have some knowledge of financial accounting and not be deceived by false accounts; anti-corruption could not only be against the natives: history has shown that the most serious corrupt elements always have a backer in the central government, which meant that anti-corruption activities must also be carried out within the Transmigration Group, so this person had to be impartial and have a strong stance…

Such a person was hard to find, and even if one could be found, it would be unwise to place this agency under the internal affairs department—he would have too much power. Ran Yao thought, it’s better to set up this agency independently.

“I’m not familiar with setting up secret agencies.”

“This is not a secret agency. It has an investigative part, but it’s completely different from political security,” Ran Yao said. “It’s better for this kind of agency to be directly under the control of the Executive Committee. Anti-corruption work will inevitably involve the transmigrators in the future.”

“You’re right,” Wu De thought, that’s indeed the case. If it couldn’t get the support of the highest authority, the value of such an agency would be quite limited.

Wu De carefully worded a report requesting the establishment of an Independent Commission Against Corruption.

The direct result of this report was that the Executive Committee announced the establishment of the Special Audit Committee—Cheng Dong of the Finance and Economics Committee had also submitted a report requesting the establishment of an audit bureau to be responsible for the audit and supervision of the entire group’s materials and financial situation, a matter that was urgent.

In the spirit of saving manpower for the revolution, and also for the purpose of minimizing the bureaucracy, the Executive Committee decided to merge the two reports and establish a department that would handle both anti-corruption and auditing. Thus, the words “Special” were added to the name of the Audit Committee.

The first director appointed was Yi Fan. He was not only an accountant but also a professional auditor, a perfect match for the job. His appointment was strongly promoted by the Finance and Economics Committee. In their view, the current financial system of the Transmigration Group was full of loopholes, a breeding ground for corruption, and it must be guarded by a professional auditor. It was appropriate for a professional auditor to hold this position.

“Is this person suitable?” Wu De looked at the fat man sitting seriously behind the conference table. This person looked like a small clerk. His auditing skills should be fine, but was he capable enough to hold this position?

“Should be no problem,” Ran Yao said in a low voice. “Yi Fan is a totalitarian…”

“Understood,” Wu De nodded. Totalitarians generally don’t recognize their own relatives and will do anything to maintain the system. They are very suitable for this job.

As expected, his subsequent speech revealed a strong totalitarian tendency. First, he wanted to change the name of the Special Audit Committee to the Special Audit Committee for the Eradication of Corruption and Sabotage, abbreviated as “Cheka.”

“See, here it comes, right?” Ran Yao chuckled softly. “These people have a bit of a ‘Hardt’ complex. ‘Hardt’ types get excited when they hear about the Iron Cross, tanks, and 88mm guns. They get ecstatic when they hear about the KGB, the Gestapo, and the Cheka.”

Everyone looked at each other. Finally, someone pointed out that even in Russian, the abbreviation for the Special Audit Committee for the Eradication of Corruption and Sabotage was not “Cheka.” Wasn’t this blatant plagiarism a bit too much?

“Not at all,” Yi Fan looked radiant. “Anti-corruption is a long-term job, a combination of public activities and secret investigations.” He slowly took out his glasses cloth and wiped his glasses. “You all probably understand that the key to anti-corruption is prevention, not arresting people after the fact. Arresting more people, handling more major cases, and even shooting the executive committee members to show our determination to fight corruption is meaningless—the evil consequences of corruption have already been produced.”

“This kid is ruthless. He wants to shoot the executive committee members right from the start,” said Cheng Dong, the People’s Commissar for Finance and Economics, with a smile.

“Maybe this kid really has this intention,” some people thought to themselves.

“…Therefore, the committee must have a strong deterrent effect—to deter crime, it must have a powerful name, so that corrupt elements will tremble at the sound of this word.”

“It doesn’t matter what it’s called,” Wen Desi said slowly. “You can call it the Cheka or the Gestapo, whatever you like. What are you going to do?”

Yi Fan smiled slyly: “That depends on how much power the Executive Committee grants me.”

In the end, he got the power he needed. This new 17th-century Cheka not only had the power to audit finances and materials, but was also authorized to enter any department under the Executive Committee at any time to inspect and seize account books and financial and material vouchers; it had the right to suspend the application and use of materials by any department at any time; to freeze the accounts and property of departments and individuals; and to summon people for questioning at any time—for no more than 72 hours. This power of summons was limited to native personnel; summoning a transmigrator required the approval of the Executive Committee.

To ensure that this committee had strong executive power, the Special Audit Committee for the Eradication of Corruption and Sabotage was guided by the Finance and Economics Committee in its business, but was directly responsible to the Executive Committee.

Yi Fan’s department quickly got to work. In his surprise inspection of the refugee camp, he immediately found that the amount of rice distributed at each meal in the refugee camp outside the county town was incorrect. He calculated very precisely how much unhusked rice was needed to feed these refugees, but the current daily consumption of rice was 7.4% more than this figure.

So the staff responsible for cooking and distributing the unhusked rice in the refugee camp were immediately summoned for questioning. In less than 24 hours, a small group that had embezzled the rice for the daily porridge was dug out. Four people were involved, and the amount involved was three dan of rice.

Wu De immediately held a public trial in the refugee camp, attended by the refugees and the staff of the Civil Affairs Committee. The four unlucky fellows were then sentenced to six months of labor reform—”to serve as a warning to others.”

The effect of making an example was very powerful. In the subsequent surprise inspections, several cases of waste due to negligence were discovered, but no more cases of embezzlement occurred. In fact, for most of the trainees who had just been assigned to the civil affairs department, this job had a high “gold content”—compared to the ordinary workers who went to the construction sites, docks, and factories every day in the commune, their job was equivalent to the status of a “cadre.” It was both respectable and had a good income. Everyone generally believed that it was not worth it for these four people to ruin their future for a few dan of rice.

This case also made a name for the newly established “Cheka.” Yi Fan was very proud. He wore a dark trench coat every day when he went to work or went out—leather trench coats were not available in Lin’gao—with a serious expression, and called everyone “comrade.” And it was a very formal address with both surname and given name, such as: “Comrade Wu De.”

However, most of his time was spent on the tedious work of financial and material audits. According to the plan of the Finance and Economics Committee: the Audit Committee, or the “Cheka,” would conduct a comprehensive audit of all departments and institutions.

“This is a very important job, a heavy burden,” Cheng Dong said to Yi Fan in the office of the Finance and Economics Committee. “Do you want some kombucha?”

“Tea is fine for me.”

“Actually, kombucha tastes pretty good. I quite like it,” Cheng Dong made him a cup of tea.

“The Independent Commission Against Corruption invites people for coffee, and here we drink tea,” he joked. “You’ll probably be inviting people for tea often in the future.”

“I hope not,” Yi Fan answered cautiously. He realized that this conversation was very important and he had to grasp the leader’s spirit.

“This audit is very tricky and probably won’t go smoothly,” Cheng Dong finally got to the point.

Yi Fan nodded. The formal financial system had only been gradually established since the beginning of this year, so there would be many problems left over from the accounts.

“The most annoying thing is that the heads of many ministries and agencies are either ignorant of the financial system or don’t care about it. Some even have a resistant attitude, feeling that a strict financial system and auditing are a sign of distrust in them,” Cheng Dong smiled a little sadly. “Accountants are not welcome anywhere.”

“They don’t yet understand the importance of the financial system…”

“Yes, everyone talks about the system with great eloquence, saying that people’s self-discipline is unreliable and must be guaranteed by a strong system. But in reality?” Cheng Dong snorted. “Everyone wants to be an exception.”

“That’s true,” Yi Fan didn’t know what the leader meant by this. He could only agree for now.

“Which department are you planning to start with for this comprehensive audit?” he asked.

“Of course, the Guangzhou Station. This station was established early, has a large volume of money and materials coming in and out, and has large expenses, including bribes,” Yi Fan said. “It’s conceivable that the accounts inside must be a mess. It should be the most difficult one. If we can crack it, the others will be easy.”

“Not necessarily,” Cheng Dong shook his head. “Guo Yi’s position is particularly stable. He has a background problem and will not easily let people catch his handle. And since we opened a branch of Delong in Guangzhou in the first half of this year, the financial system of the Guangzhou Station has been completely formalized—although there are many accounts in Guangzhou, they are not necessarily difficult to manage.”