After my friend and I were laid off, respectively, working in two private enterprises, and I, like him, is also the office director, there is a common language, after work we often get together to exchange insights and experiences.
In 2007, the boss’s wife of their enterprise handed over 8 official seals to the boss because she had to go to the city to take care of her children’s study. The boss was not satisfied with the management for half a year, so he handed it over to my friend.
At that time, the boss cautiously said to him: “I know you were laid off in the office of state-owned enterprises before the management of the official seal, the importance of the official seal I will not say much, because the seal negligence, resulting in economic losses and illegal crime cases you should know very well. Remember, don’t make a mess.”
The friend said, at that time he got these symbols of the highest power of the company’s official seal, feel the boss very trust in their own, the heart is hot, and even a little flutter. But he did not expect, after receiving the official seal, increased workload not to mention, but also was wearing a “tight spell”.
The article is a friend’s account.
1
In April 2008, our construction company in the field received a few projects, because the bank in the project location to open an account, a loan, the project and banking business often need to use the official seal, bring to the trouble, but also often delay the work, the boss asked me to find a way, “to carve another official seal”.
It so happened that our construction company had to engrave a project chapter (project chapter is one for each project), I went to the Public Security Bureau. The front desk heard that I want to engrave two official seals, told me to go to the head of the security section in charge of the Qian section to ask. In the office, I found the money section chief, he was buried in front of the computer, heard my intention, did not raise his head and rejected me: “No, the official seal can only be one – the project department chapter can be engraved.”
In fact, a unit engraved two official seals, this is also unheard of for me. But I submit legal compliance procedures, more than one, should not violate the law, and now the fake official seal everywhere, no accident who cares?
Seeing that he no longer cared about me, I exited the door and wrapped a red packet and handed it to him when his office was empty. I explained to him the situation on our side and hoped he would “do something special”.
He lit the cigarette I handed him, pondered for a moment and said, “It is not conducive to work. In view of your actual situation, I will see if there is a precedent.”
He took two puffs of his cigarette, seemed to feel bad about it, and looked down at the brand of the cigarette. Although we are a national poverty-stricken county here, but the consumption level is very high. To go to the county authorities to do business, the minimum are to take Chinese cigarettes. Our business also divided the rules of using cigarettes according to the functions of the township and the competent department. I just came back from the township, I took 20 yuan of Yuxi cigarettes, this time I can only “second best”, to cope with a little.
I smiled apologetically and said, “Sorry, I’m busy this time, I didn’t bring good cigarettes.” I’m afraid of extraneous, and hurriedly turn the conversation, said I am also very familiar with their director, and also talked about our drinking anecdotes several times. The last compliment: “This kind of small thing, I look for the director, the director also have to look for you, why not I directly ask you a favor, in the future, if you need me, just make a phone call.”
“Your business is very famous, well done, I believe your business is not nonsense.” He said while checking on the computer, and finally agreed to engrave another official seal.
In order to facilitate the work and contact, every year before the Spring Festival we invite the relevant personnel of the government authorities to dinner, and since then, the head of the Qian Section has also become one of them. Usually when I am free, I also invite him to have a barbecue, some night beer, and he gradually become familiar with.
2
We have an open unspoken rule for construction companies to undertake projects here: after the construction side and the construction side have reached a cooperation agreement in secret, in order to show the principle of “fairness, justice and openness”, they will invite several peer companies to “round up” the bids, of course, in the end, it is usually the construction side’s own company that wins the bid. The construction party’s own company won the bid; sometimes won more bids, in order to cover the ears, will also borrow another company’s brand to win the bid. The “borrowed” company according to the accounting of the project profit, before the start of construction took away part of the profit. This is the rule of the trade here, called “draw points”.
In June 2010, our construction company was a good relationship with a peer company “loan” won the bid to repair rural drains, a few hundred thousand small projects. The peer company pushed to our “project manager” surnamed Fang, a simple character, dark complexion, a look at the long years of work in the outdoors. He told us privately that he himself is actually a contractor, and this small project was contracted by him from a peer company.
This project is nominally done by us, so all the information to be stamped by our business, expenditure income by us to do the accounts, so, because of this project, I went to the Qian section chief again, to Fang manager engraved a project department chapter. Our company then for the project “around the bid” the construction manager, from time to time will also invite me and the accountant to check the site, to understand the construction progress and quality and safety – after all, this relates to our company’s reputation.
Every time we go, Fang manager are very enthusiastic, entertain us to the nearby farmhouse dinner, and shout on the township government leaders in charge of eating together, often a group, they make a lot of noise, guessing line orders, competition drinking, is very lively.
At the end of the project, during the financial inspection of our construction company, it was found that there was a fake invoice in this project, and a fine of more than ten thousand yuan was imposed. The boss called the owner of the peer company, explained the situation, and asked the other party to take charge of the situation. Unexpectedly, the other party refused implicitly: “The project was won in the name of your company, we did not participate in the supervision and management, and the project manager (Manager Fang) resigned long ago.”
The boss, dumbfounded, first cursed the other party in private for not being honest, and then felt as if he had never signed the agreement to lend his company’s name to the other party to enclose the bid, and doubted whether I would be like some construction units who were in charge of the seal, giving private seals to enclose the bid to receive benefit fees, so he said he would check my seal approval form here.
I will be about this project stamp approval form to the boss, although there is no his signature on it, but marked a time – before the company’s construction manager to stamp, said to me: “the boss is not in, I phone to ask him to agree.” After that I also called the boss for confirmation and noted on the approval form the time of the call, and it was the boss who agreed to put the work under our construction company’s name at that time.
The financial accountant’s side couldn’t shrug it off – the main reason for the incident was their lax gatekeeping and failure to detect the fake invoices, which caused the company to be penalized. After the incident, the boss deducted the accountant and the finance section chief’s performance pay and part of the year-end bonus for the month.
“We don’t have inspection tools, so how can we identify them with our eyes?” The accountant whined and called Manager Fang who never got through, so he invited us to look around, but we couldn’t find anyone either.
Later we learned that the actual project was resold to Mr. Fang by a peer company, and the peer company received the transfer money from Mr. Fang, and our company received the management fee from Mr. Fang. Finally, the two bosses, after discussion, together to find the relevant departments to intercede, which was not settled.
After the aftermath, the boss and special face barked at me: “In the future, where I verbally agreed, after all to bring me to make up the signature.”
From then on, the boss is not in the external borrowing company’s name, there is a particularly good relationship really want to borrow to go around the bid, you must first write a commitment to ensure that our company does not win the bid.
A year later, the manager suddenly contacted me and said he wanted to invite me and the construction manager who had helped him to stamp for dinner. At that time, he was working in the provinces, this time specifically back, is to repair the aqueduct warranty money due to be returned to him, we need to stamp the official seal on the relevant procedures.
During the meeting, we talked about the fake invoices. He was very aggrieved: “It took more than a year to find out, and I couldn’t go to the issuer. This small project, I paid money to both sides of the company, the township often come to pick a thorn in the side, other people next to the point, some come to ask for a few bags of cement, some take a few bundles of rebar, some pull a cart of sand away …… I simply did not earn money. How about you guys help me to the accountant, I’ll give him some compensation.”
“Forget it,” I said, “you give compensation, uninformed also said you have long colluded, favoritism, he even work to get off.”
Manager Fang got to the point and begged me to give him a stamp for the refund of the warranty. I said with difficulty, “I really can’t help you with this, I have to get the boss to sign.”
Manager Fang was anxious and said, “I don’t know about the quality of the project, but if I don’t get the warranty back soon, I’m afraid that if it rains heavily, it will be more difficult to get it back – I’ve already said yes to the township leaders.”
The construction manager knows how hard it is to do the project, looked at me, meaningfully said to the other manager: “This is your own idea, and not what cutting-edge science, is not a chapter, how can get. We keep it a secret for you, you hurry up and do it, to prevent the night long dream.”
I immediately understood the meaning of the construction manager, did not answer again.
3
In May 2010, I went to the Public Security Bureau Security Section to find the head of the Qian Section, hoping to engrave a past official seal of our company. He kindly said, “There is a business need, you go directly to the Bureau of Industry and Commerce to issue a certificate to prove what the company used to be called, there is no need to spend money to carve the seal.”
I did not dare to give him explicitly said that the use of our engraved seal is actually to sell the car.
The car is many years ago, the boss purchased a low-cost “water” foreign high-grade off-road vehicles, the idea of doing a driving license. Later, because the car came from the wrong way, the DMV found that the car has problems, has not given annual inspection. The owner put the car on hold in the mine department of the mountain, mainly used to receive the relevant personnel to go to the mines in the mountains for safety inspection, with a few years, still like a new car.
Later, the Township Safety Supervision Office needed a car for work, the boss gave them the SUV. The township used two years, it happens that the county has a leader’s son engaged in engineering, the need for an affordable and somewhat prestigious car, resold to him for 5,000 yuan.
In the past, because the car could not be transferred, we entered into a “gift agreement” with the township. The township received money from the leader’s son and returned the original gift agreement to us, saying that all the formalities of the car transaction would be handled by us and the other party again, and the boss would implement it to our office in charge.
I gave the leader’s son said the car came from, thinking that the boss are not able to annual inspection, the transfer of words must be quite difficult, or hope that he is like the township security office as usual with the two sides signed a contract and done. I did not expect people to hear a contemptuous smile, said: “small thing, you provide the vehicle, the company’s relevant procedures, other external I will deal with.”
Selling a car to transfer, you need to use the company’s official seal, corporate organization code certificate and code certificate electronic attached card. In the past, when the company was established as a group, the companies were unified with the name, changed the name, the original official seal was destroyed, and the code card also expired. I reported this to the boss, who said impatiently, “You are the director, you figure it out yourself, I only see the results.”
I understand his mind – not long ago we met, we talked about a private enterprise in our county was prosecuted for tax evasion, the boss suddenly spoke to the finance minister and said, “Our business financial accounts, please consciously take full responsibility, I do not understand.”
The finance minister heard what the boss said and said in a loud voice: for the development of the enterprise, he “would like to go through fire and water.
In order to survive, whether it is the boss, or working us, sometimes there is no choice, the big law is not committed, the small law constantly, as long as it is not murder and arson, drug trafficking and selling people, we generally will not refuse.
Enterprise seal, the tight band around my head
The sale of cars to transfer this matter is obviously risky, directly to the money section chief said, he certainly will not agree. I finally had to go outside and privately engraved the original unit’s official seal, forged for the code certificate required for the past business license copies. After all the formalities, stamp, I went to the relevant departments for the code certificate.
The person dealing with it is also considered an old acquaintance, he turned over the information and asked me: “Where is the original business license? I need to check.”
“The original annual inspection went, I can’t wait to use it urgently.” I replied unhurriedly, “I photocopied the official seal, you are receiving copies anyway. You can rest assured that the information is fine.”
He did not pursue, and after entering the name of the business on the computer exclaimed, “Oh my! You have not had an annual inspection of this certificate for so many years, there is a fine.”
“And please give me a high hand.” With years of friendship, I knew he was scaring me and said indifferently.
“This is the rules above, we can not. Forget it, no fine, but you always have to thank me.” He said jokingly.
“Okay, drink tonight.” Seeing that it was done, I replied cheerfully.
He nimbly typed out the license on the printer: “Electronic attached card by the city, but I do not know when it will come. If you need to hurry, I’ll give them a word. If any of you are in the city, go get it yourself tomorrow, and dinner will be waived.”
After I gave the information to the leader’s son, I cut off contact with him. I was afraid of future trouble, behind my boss’s back, I quietly destroyed the privately engraved official seal.
4
After the coal market was on fire in 2006, the boss ignored the relevant laws and regulations in order to obtain more economic benefits, and contracted out all of the illegal and legal shafts in our coal mines, making it mandatory for the contractors to pay the “safety risk deposit”.
Due to the fact that the authorities are working on their own, illegal shafts in legal coal mines are flourishing, and many government officials are either suspended from their jobs or secretly participate in them. When there is an inspection from higher authorities, illegal mines are able to get prior information to stop production, and then continue production after the wind has passed.
In order to improve production efficiency, coal mines will use explosives. The explosives are supplied by the Public Security Bureau according to the regulations, and “there are too many monks and too few porridge”. Our company mine those legal and illegal contractors, there are access to our company’s name, to the Public Security Bureau to Qian Section Chief to apply for explosives.
After I took over the company’s official seal in 2008, an illegal wellhead contractor Huang, often came to me to stamp the explosives application form.
The first time he came to me, handed me a cigarette, I do not smoke and refused. He looked around and handed cigarettes to others in the office with some hesitation. Seeing him leave, a driver who often runs coal mines smoked a cigarette and came up to me and said sourly, “I smoked a cigarette from him today, thanks to you.” Seeing my doubts, the driver said without hiding: “Our coal mine managers often take my car to his mine inspection, he ignored us, a look of dog fighting for power. In fact, to be frank, he is not also shouted to work.”
“Is not he contracted?” I do not understand.
The driver wanted to speak, but after a pause, whispered mysteriously: “The contractor behind the scenes is a powerful person in charge of the department.” I wanted to know more, but he shook his head: “I can only understand, not to say.”
Mr. Huang’s mine is indeed more productive than any other mine. According to the driver, this is all because they are well-funded, strong background, the mine big road hit fast, explosive items are not restricted at all.
Thinking of Huang every time you can easily approve the explosives, I suddenly associated with the backstage must have money section chief – I once ran into them together in the hotel dinner.
One day in July, Mr. Huang’s mine died a miner, the mine afraid of fines, the family of the deceased afraid to get to the cremation, the two sides quietly negotiated the terms and conditions, the deceased transported back home to the mountains overnight, before giving our office a briefing.
According to the regulations, in addition to work-related accidents, the first time to notify the insurance department, they can come out to the scene to verify. The next day, we and the insurance officer found the deceased’s workers at that time to ask the situation and make a statement. The insurance officer felt that it was against the rules and did not want to go to the deceased’s home to verify. I saw the insurance officer pestle there not moving, thinking of the relationship between the head of the Qian Section and us, so the words reminded Huang to give him a hard red envelope, ask him to go to the mountains to run a trip, hurry up and get things done.
Huang went straight to the back of a hill and took out the phone to call up. It didn’t take long for the insurance man to receive a call from the head of their unit, telling him to go immediately and finish the work that needed to be done.
Later, someone reported the matter to the township safety office, which sent someone to the mine to do an investigation, stressing that “concealing an accident without reporting it will result in heavy penalties. The mine called the boss to inquire, and the boss said, “Someone will handle this matter, don’t ask more questions.
Then the accident was really not reported.
From then on, the managers all vaguely knew that Mr. Huang had a strong background, and routine inspections at his shafts were just a walk in the park, and even when safety hazards and non-compliance with production rules were detected, they turned a blind eye to the situation, and no one pursued and asked questions – everyone understood that it was futile to ask questions.
5
The contracted wellheads in our coal mines are basically making money, but the wellhead of Mr. He has been missing benefits.
Earlier, Mr. He had a small illegal coal kiln elsewhere and made a lot of money. Just they used explosives are secretly bought from the private manufacture of earth explosives, not only quality assurance, but also high prices, and later by the public security in one fell swoop, a number of illegal small coal kiln bosses were also arrested. Later an accident, the small coal kiln blew up, He was sentenced to two years in prison. Out of the mix for a period of time, did not earn money, had to return to the old business, to our company contracted a wellhead.
He was a rural private teacher, generous, righteous, a road in their hometown is he funded the construction. I often see him wearing a wrinkled brand-name suit, in our company in and out of business. Sometimes we are invited to eat stalls, after a little wine, we will wander together to Karaoke, a song “Loess Heights” is his favorite.
But when he was back, he invested several million in the wellhead has not yet hit the coal.
He heard that I have a good relationship with the head of the Qian section, I was asked to go to the head of the Qian section to intercede and “grant some explosives”. It was difficult, but out of friendship, I decided to give it a try.
“If you do it for me, I will thank him afterwards.” Mr. He promised.
I found the money section chief, said straight to the point: “We contracted the mine mouth of the total He, the mine rocky, please help you approve some explosives.” And implied that there will be reward.
Qian said with some difficulty: “I do not have that power, explosives are strictly controlled, I can only be approved according to the rules, special circumstances have to be approved by the above before, I can not exceed the authority to do.”
“How can the wellhead of Mr. Huang?” People familiar words casually, I asked in a somewhat threatening tone.
Qian chief listened, the tone is a bit annoyed: “Brother, I have said what should be said, please do not waste your breath.”
In the evening I called the money section chief again, said He invited dinner, he said exempt: “Although I also love small favors, but I am within the scope of duties depending on the situation, contrary to the big principles, is to smash the rice bowl, I will not do.”
Later, I would have liked to give Mr. He the idea to call him up and down to see if it would work, but Mr. He was in a difficult period of entrepreneurship, the money itself is tight, and the matter was not done in the end.
Mr. He’s field is deteriorating, from inviting us to eat stalls to food stalls, from smoking Chinese cigarettes to Yuxi cigarettes. He is like a losing gambler, the bank can not lend money, it is high-interest borrowing around. He was confident that with his years of experience, as long as he kept digging, the coal seam at this location should be thick and more. But finally see the coal seam, but is “chicken nest coal (is a nest of a nest, not a piece, limited reserves, not easy to mine)”.
Seeing the money down the drain, under our repeated persuasion, Mr. He decided to retreat. He wanted to sell some of the purchased equipment that could not be moved, and the workhouse he built to our boss to make up some money. The boss refused to do it, saying that there was no coal in that wellhead and the things left behind would not be useful. He did not dare to offend the boss, after all, he had to return the risk deposit, and finally had no choice but to give all those things to the boss.
On this matter, the boss explained I said: “he sent words, must and he book an agreement, note, only one, stay in our hands, so that he will not later backtrack. In addition, the money can be returned to him only after handing back the previously signed contract for the wellhead.”
I wrote a simple agreement on behalf of Mr. He, who read it, and I asked the corporate lawyer consultant to review it, so Mr. He signed it and pressed his handprint. The boss was not in that day, thinking that this is the boss handed over, the business is beneficial, I did not ask the boss, directly stamped.
After a few days, I went to ask the boss to sign, but that day the boss did not know what was not happy, said I wantonly, disregard the rules and regulations, roared and gave me a lecture: “Which day you sold the business, I am still in the dark.”
In the fall of 2011, after the company refunded 2/3 of Mr. He’s risk deposit, he ran away. After that, there are constantly debtors with his IOUs, purchase IOUs and fundraising sheets, looking for money from our company. These debtors included vendors, farmers, and old people with gray hair.
The owner naturally did not want to be responsible, pushing that this is an illegal mine, He is always stealing our coal resources, the mine has been forcibly banned by the law enforcement department according to the regulations, what He did has nothing to do with us, “we are also preparing to sue him”.
The debtor is dissatisfied, some people will take a copy of the contracted wellhead contract with Mr. He, to “illegal fund-raising” reported to the police.
No official seal on the note, the boss is not afraid, but worried that this will lead to other illegal wellheads contracted out together with the exposure of the public opinion pushed to the forefront, can not be closed is not good. And most of these debtors are vulnerable, the authorities will certainly approach him to do work in order to calm things down, and ask him to “bleed (pay)”. Therefore, the boss specifically instructed me: “Burn the contract signed between the company and Mr. He and other information, and when someone comes to ask, say that the contract is forged. All the relevant files should be rearranged, and must be clean and thorough.”
We worked overtime to complete the task, and in the end the people who came to investigate did not find out.
6
Mr. Huang’s side did not always go smoothly, a few years later, he was still “fixed”.
One day in September 2012, Mr. Huang’s wellhead and the neighboring county’s mine dug through, both sides said the other side is “cross-border mining”, for the resources to fight, and even explosives to the other side of the shaft, resulting in multiple injuries.
Mr. Huang saw the big deal and wrote a situation report to the city authorities, asking them to deal with the neighboring county mine. He came to me for a stamp, and spoke in anger about what had happened. I stamped, he picked up the report written in the name of our coal mine, and left in a fury.
Just after he left, Chief Qian called me to understand the matter. He said that if explosives were moved during the fight, the consequences would be very serious. Companies will also be blacklisted in the management of explosives, strict approval and reduced dosage. “If so, you deal with it quickly, do not expand the situation and create a bad impact in society.”
My mouth thanked him for his kindness, but in my heart I felt that he was afraid of stirring up trouble.
I didn’t expect that this matter has stirred up a big basket in the end.
According to Huang’s report, the city bureau found that Huang’s wellhead was an illegal wellhead, according to the mine layout plan. When the owner found out, he rushed to the city overnight and tried to find more than one person to intercede, fearing that the city bureau would send an enforcement team to the mine for a deep investigation. In the end, when the city decided to task the county authorities to deal with the boss finally relieved, the total He opened the abandoned mine handed over, the county came to seal the wellhead, photographed, wrote a processing report to the municipal bureau, the matter is closed.
It is said that the real mine contractor behind Mr. Huang gave greetings to the competent authorities of neighboring counties, and finally, who is right and who is wrong, both sides did not pursue, will be connected to the place blocked, each open a new coal mining site. Mr. Huang also lost the arrogance of the past.
The boss thought that there was management at all levels, and that someone must have deliberately “let the water in”. He called us all together and got angry, asking me in a stern voice: “Why didn’t you have the last word when stamping?”
“I reviewed, the document format, statements are in line with the requirements, the use of the seal (seal) is also in line with the regulations.”
“Don’t you know that this wellhead is a bit ‘special’? The boss shouted angrily.
“No leader told me, nor have I seen the relevant documents, I don’t know.” Whose wellhead is illegal and whose wellhead is legal, the boss could not openly give us, I replied feigning confusion, with an inexplicable pleasure in my heart.
When the boss heard my words, he froze for a moment, turned his head and questioned the mine manager: “You are the person in charge of the management of the coal mine, you should know the whole situation, why did you confusingly sign the approval form for the use of the seal and agree to it?!”
The mine manager lowered his head and whispered, “Everything was handled by them (Mr. Huang), we didn’t interfere, I was busy and didn’t look at ……”
The boss gave the mine manager a severe lecture, even if it was handled – it’s not easy to find a better mine manager now.
At the end, the boss admonished me with residual anger: “In the future, I have to sign and agree to all external documents before they can be stamped.”
Epilogue
In 2014, a serious mining accident occurred in our county, the coal boss was caught and held off-site, and during interrogation, he confessed to having paid a bribe to approve explosives, and then the chief of the Qian section was suspended for review and eventually removed and transferred from his post. Later, the director was investigated, and in the summer of 2015, the director was sentenced – I heard that he was one of the bosses behind the General Huang mine.
At the end of 2016, the city government implemented a “one-size-fits-all” closure policy for small coal mines, and all the shafts that the boss had contracted out were closed.
Some people lamented that if our boss had spent money on “technological improvements” in previous years to increase production capacity, he would not have been in this range.
But there are people who know the inside story, said those coal mines, private digging, ignoring the rules of safety production, simply can not technical reform, but also to the environment, hydrology, the mountain has laid a deep hidden danger, river pollution, collapse of the mountain, house cracks, in recent years there are often villagers looking for coal mine trouble, the boss took the government’s high compensation fee, should steal the joy.
Now, the boss “in order to reduce my workload”, let the niece take over the official seal.
In fact, I understand that he does not trust me.
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