Chapter 1401 - The Corruption Problem
"Doesn't this implicate an Elder?" Jin Zhijiao, who had vaguely sensed the subtext in Yi Fan's words, immediately grew tense.
"Given this situation, how could it possibly not implicate an Elder? After all, the final authority rests in the hands of the Elders." Yi Fan said meaningfully. "Absolute power means absolute corruption—surely you've heard that saying before?"
"Of course, Comrade Director."
Yi Fan was keeping something to himself. He did not tell his deputy that in the safe in his private office in the Fifth Division, there was a red-covered memorandum containing all the "disciplinary violations" by Elders that the Fifth Division had collected in the course of investigating various corruption cases.
Compared with the "damaging materials" that Cheng Dong had handed over to him when the Cheka was first established, these materials were far more "lethal." After all, those earlier materials were merely "procedural issues"—misuse of funds, incomplete financial paperwork—not yet rising to the level of "corruption."
But the contents of this red-covered memorandum were different. What was recorded there were, without a doubt, acts of "corruption." Although by the standards of another time-space these so-called corruptions would hardly be newsworthy enough for a forum post, here in Lingao they were absolute bombshells.
The memorandum had grown thicker through his diligent work. While savoring the pleasure of holding great secrets of others, Yi Fan's mental pressure also grew daily. To possess the power to destroy others is also to possess the power to destroy oneself.
"I really don't understand," Jin Zhijiao shifted uneasily in her chair, "why would an Elder engage in corruption? Our government is just a joint-stock company, and everyone is a shareholder..."
"Back in the day, we were all 'masters of the country' too." Yi Fan said with a cold sneer, then felt this remark was inappropriate. "The issues involving Elders are mostly insignificant little matters. Many Elders probably don't even feel there's anything inappropriate: a meal here, arranging a good position for a subordinate naturalized civilian there, privately purchasing female slaves, accepting some local specialties—of course, by the standards of either time-space, these amount to nothing. But as you just said, our Council of Elders is a joint-stock company, and since it's a joint-stock company, shareholders are very sensitive."
Jin Zhijiao decided it was prudent to remain silent.
Yi Fan stood up, cigar in one hand, the other thrust into his trouser pocket, and began pacing the office.
"You know, anything involving Elders is very complicated. I'll be away for a few months. The Fifth Division's work cannot stop, but you must be as cautious as possible in your actions."
"I understand." Jin Zhijiao nodded. She flipped through the folder directory in her hands; apparently there were no cases involving Elders, which set her somewhat at ease. "For cases that have already entered the interrogation phase, I'll let the Fifth Division staff continue with them."
"Right, you just need to keep overall supervision." Yi Fan nodded as he spoke. "Who knows how long I'll be gone on this trip."
A steam whistle sounded as the Haitian was towed slowly away from the dock at Bopu Harbor. Its departure was quiet—no send-off procession customary for Elder departures, no Elder's personal flag flying from the ship.
"A heavy burden and a long road ahead." In the Haitian's officers' lounge, Yi Fan gazed at Bopu Harbor gradually receding through the porthole and spoke with emotion.
This officers' lounge had been temporarily converted into the inspection team's workroom. The Elder members of the inspection team had gathered here to discuss the specific choice and work content for their first stop.
The inspection team's personnel were chosen by the various departments themselves. The main members came from the Cheka and the Planning Institute, and there were also several auditing experts whom Yi Fan had specifically borrowed on temporary assignment from other finance-related departments. But the Elder members were few: apart from Yi Fan, there was only Chen Baibin from the Political Security General Administration and Dai Xie from the Planning Institute.
Dai Xie's presence seemed to give the Elders an unfavorable hint, for he was the leader of the Planning Institute's Special Search Team—long devoted to "confiscation" operations and reputed to be a man who could squeeze oil from pebbles. The Planning Institute's dispatching of him seemed to suggest a thorough "getting to the bottom of assets" at the various overseas stations.
Yi Fan, having worked with Dai Xie multiple times due to their overlapping duties, was fairly familiar with him. By contrast, Chen Baibin was a complete stranger to both of them.
He was a tall, thin young man, like a bamboo pole: 180 centimeters tall, 50 kilograms. According to Chen Sigen's assessment, he was classified as malnourished on health examination.
Although even during the so-called "arduous march" phase, the Elders' fare could only be described as monotonous in variety and somewhat lacking in fat intake, overall nutritional levels had still been fairly well assured. Coupled with physical labor and healthy living habits, many Elders had shown trends of heavy people losing weight and thin people gaining. But Elder Chen's weight had shown no change whatsoever.
Although Yi Fan's department was the second best-informed about Council and Elder affairs, and he had consciously collected basic information about the Elders, he knew very little about this Elder Chen. He only knew vaguely that the man was a student at some obscure domestic normal university, studying some unknown major, but had mastered a vast amount of knowledge in geography, history, economics, culture, military affairs, biology, chemistry, physics, and so forth—in other words, roughly the sort of keyboard strategist who loved to hold forth on everything online.
Because this person was in the malnourished category, although he had been relegated to the status of "basic laborer" for quite a long stretch, he had never done any heavy work, and naturally no one had wanted him when jobs were being assigned. He had simply idled about in the Great Library for a long time. Although his normal-university credentials had once attracted Hu Qingbai's attention, he ultimately had not been assigned to serve at Fangcaodi.
As it turned out, he had gone to the Political Security General Administration. Zhao Manxiong really does have a few tricks up his sleeve, Yi Fan thought. Without a peep, he recruited people one by one into his organization, and I didn't hear a word of it.
When this Elder Chen had joined the Political Security General Administration, and what he did there, was probably known only to people inside their bureau and the Organization Division.
"Since we've already set sail, let's discuss work matters first." Yi Fan returned to the long table. The table was already covered with folders and files.
"I don't need to say much; everyone should be well aware," Yi Fan said. "The focus of this inspection is Hangzhou."
Subtle expressions appeared on the faces of the several Elders around the table. But no one said anything.
"There is considerable dissatisfaction in the Council of Elders with the Hangzhou Station, or rather, with Zhao Yingong. If we dawdle along, starting from Leizhou and working our way up the coast—Leizhou, Guangzhou, Taiwan—station by station, we will inevitably invite criticism of our inspection work from the Council. Inspection and audit work takes a lot of time after all. Each location adds up; it would be at least one or two months before we reached Hangzhou. This obviously cannot meet the Council's expectations."
"Therefore, I propose our first stop be Kaohsiung." Yi Fan said. "What do you all think?"
Setting out directly from Lingao to Hangzhou would be too much of an affront to Elder Zhao. Slighting Elder Zhao was a small matter; slighting certain Elders in the Council and Executive Committee was a major matter.
Stopping at Kaohsiung to transition, staying a week or two, then proceeding to Hangzhou would be more natural. It would also look better for all concerned.
"I have no objections." Dai Xie said. "What about you, Xiao Chen?"
"Neither do I." Chen Baibin's face showed no expression. "I defer to Team Leader Yi's arrangements in all matters."
"Very well. Since that's the case, our first stop will be Kaohsiung. Now let's discuss the specific work arrangements."
Before departure, Yi Fan had already visited all the members of the Executive Committee and privately exchanged views with the various political factions and associations within the Council of Elders. He had roughly grasped the current views of the Executive Committee and Council of Elders regarding the overseas institutions.
The various matters at the Hangzhou Station, although they had stirred up waves of verbal attacks in the Council, had been met with calm indifference in the Executive Committee.
The problems of the overseas stations had long been well understood by all the Executive Committee members, but how the authority of the overseas stations ought to be configured had always been a vexing issue for the Executive Committee.
In the view of the Executive Committee worthies, the so-called "going rogue" problem of the overseas Elders was essentially a contradiction between central and local division of powers. It was by no means as simple as replacing a few station chiefs or canceling a few projects.
Those Elders who were now pounding tables and spitting fury in the Council, demanding accountability for "rogue" tendencies—if they themselves became the top leaders of overseas stations, they would "go rogue" faster and more thoroughly than anyone else.
The overseas stations were different from the county offices on Hainan Island—a typical central-local relationship. The various counties on Hainan Island, including the Sanya Greater Region they had established, were bound tightly to Lingao as the center by highways, scheduled liner services, and wired/wireless telegrams.
In terms of local authority, these counties were basically the same as in the Ming era: nearly all important powers were held by the "center," including the most crucial fiscal authority, which was completely remitted upward and completely allocated downward. For any local project, the locality had to go through the planning and approval of departments such as the Planning Institute; the materials, funds, and even manpower needed also had to be allocated from Lingao. If local Elders wanted to develop the economy with their own projects, they had to go to Lingao to "run the departments."
Once one left Hainan Island, even though the Council of Elders possessed wireless telegraphy and the fastest merchantmen and warships of this time-space, the degree of control inevitably declined. In particular, the shortage of qualified naturalized civilian administrative personnel and technical workers made the Council of Elders' local administration and business operations highly dependent on the overseas Elders.
Because the resources that could be allocated to overseas Elders were limited and the waiting time very long, the overseas Elders had almost without exception developed the mentality of "self-reliance, self-sufficiency." Taking in refugees, educating children, training their own administrative personnel, then establishing commercial and handicraft enterprises—almost every overseas station was following this pattern. Even a purely mining outpost like the Hongji Coal Mine could not help engaging in a bit of rice trading and refugee collection.