Hunan Province, Chaling County Civil Affairs Bureau’s finance officer He Yan took advantage of his position to embezzle and misappropriate more than 1.7 million yuan (RMB) of electricity subsidies for the needy.
According to reports from mainland official media on May 15th, in an old house in the Huishan community factory and mining residential area on Sichong Street in Chaling County, Hunan Province, 72-year-old Tang Qiuzhen has lived for most of her life. Tang, who recently suffered a sudden heart attack on top of various underlying conditions, spent 4 days in the intensive care unit. Now, she has to spend a substantial amount of money on medication every month.
Due to tight financial conditions at home, Tang Qiuzhen is very economical with electricity. She said, “I pay 50 yuan for electricity at once, and that amount can last for over a month.”
According to official policy, each household of “low-income households” in urban and rural areas in the province and rural “five-guarantee households” can enjoy a reduction of 10 kWh of electricity per month. Based on Hunan’s electricity prices, Tang Qiuzhen and her husband can receive about 70 yuan in electricity subsidies each year.
Tang Qiuzhen never expected that these electricity subsidies were secretly tampered with.
“Why hasn’t the electricity subsidy been issued for about two years? In 2024, the authorities in Chaling County received some feedback from the needy population.”
Upon investigation throughout the county, it was found that there were “lying funds,” “zombie accounts,” and underlying violations and illegal activities.
In August 2024, under pressure, He Yan, the accountant of the Civil Affairs Bureau of Chaling County, voluntarily reported to the County Commission for Discipline Inspection and Supervision.
In 2016, He Yan, who was the head of the finance department of the county’s Civil Affairs Bureau at the time, found that the Social Assistance Bureau had not canceled the public account and there were over 4.2 million yuan in electricity subsidies for the needy from 2014 and 2015 that had not been distributed. He Yan did not report this information, and no one else discovered this public account with over 4.2 million yuan, making it a “zombie account” controlled solely by her.
In March 2017, in order to attract deposits for her nephew working at a certain bank, He Yan issued a transfer cheque, transferring 1.06 million yuan from the public account of the Social Assistance Bureau to her personal account, and subsequently used this money to purchase financial products.
Afterward, He Yan waited for about two years. In 2019, she found that the “zombie account” was still being mismanaged, so she transferred another 200,000 yuan from the account and issued a check directly for personal consumption such as recharging beauty cards and house renovations. From 2016 to 2021, He Yan transferred funds from the account a total of more than 1.7 million yuan in nine installments.
On April 2nd of this year, He Yan was sentenced to five years in prison for corruption by the Chaling County Court.
Some netizens questioned in the comments, is this the fault of one person?
The report stated that the financial management was chaotic. He Yan acted as the unit’s accountant, although there was another person in charge of cash transactions, it was basically non-existent; He was the sole manager of the bank’s reserved financial seal and electronic seal for the Social Assistance Bureau’s public account. Funds were left unattended for a long time. Involving more than 30,000 households of the needy, the over 4.2 million yuan in livelihood funds was not distributed promptly for over two years, and surprisingly, no one questioned it. There were loopholes in the account custody. After the withdrawal of the Social Assistance Bureau’s institution, there was no timely reconciliation and clearance of the accounts and funds, leaving a large sum of money in a regulatory “void,” providing He Yan with space for corruption resembling an “ant moving house” style.