What They Brought Back from Grassroots Units Was a "Problem-Resolution Receipt" Signed and Confirmed by Officers and Soldiers
The PAP Sanya Detachment Takes Concrete Measures to Resolve Difficulties and Reduce Burdens at the Grassroots — Cadres Assigned to Help Units Bring Back "Problem-Resolution Receipts"
■ Huang Wentao, Mao Wenxiu, PLA Daily Reporter Li Youzhi
Recently, a group of headquarters cadres from the People's Armed Police Hainan Corps Sanya Detachment completed their embedded assistance assignments and returned from the grassroots. Unlike before, what they brought back from grassroots units was no longer a ledger of problems or a rectification checklist, but rather "problem-resolution receipts" (解难回执单) signed and confirmed by officers and soldiers.
Speaking to this change, Section Chief Yin of the detachment headquarters — who has not been in the post long — told this reporter a story.
Shortly after taking up his post, he went to a certain company for an embedded assignment and spent one week compiling nearly 30 issues in areas such as Party branch deliberation procedures and internal affairs detail standards, then required the company to formulate rectification measures item by item and submit weekly progress reports.
Section Chief Yin had originally felt that his grassroots work that time was thorough and solid, but the grassroots response threw cold water on him. The company's political instructor reported to him: "We noticed many of the problems on the list long ago, but they are difficult to fix on our own — they require the detachment headquarters and sister units to work together to resolve them." An ordnance technician was even more blunt: "Plenty of problems were listed, but the difficulties with equipment storage that we had previously raised were not mentioned at all."
"The purpose of an embedded assignment is not to 'find fault.' True performance (政绩) lies not only in discovering problems, but even more in whether those problems are actually solved." These pointed words from the detachment's leadership struck Section Chief Yin deeply. He soon voluntarily requested to return to the same company for a second assignment. This time, his work focus was not to carry a "notebook" and record problems, but to pull up a "stool" and immerse himself in the squads and platoons, listening earnestly to the genuine thoughts of officers and soldiers.
After conducting in-depth heart-to-heart talks with officers and soldiers, Section Chief Yin found that many married personnel were visibly troubled when talking about practical problems such as family members' visits and children's school enrollment: the company's garrison was far from the city, housing was tight when family members came to visit, quality educational resources in the surrounding area were scarce, and family members of personnel living apart from their spouses faced serious difficulties with employment and children's schooling. Previously, the company had tried many approaches to address this, but with little effect.
After getting a clear picture of the actual situation, Section Chief Yin promptly made a special report to the detachment Party committee and proactively coordinated with relevant functional departments, resolving the school enrollment difficulties for the children of several officers and soldiers. Beyond that, the detachment Party committee attached great importance to the situation Section Chief Yin had reported and has already included advancing the renovation and upgrading of the family housing building in its work plan.
Since the beginning of this year, the detachment has seized on the opportunity of carrying out study and education on establishing and practicing a correct view of performance (正确政绩观) to take aim at chronic maladies such as formalism, and through a series of measures that both break old practices and establish new ones, has driven the work of resolving difficulties and reducing burdens at the grassroots to produce tangible results:
Multiple redundant ledgers have been abolished, and the written materials that grassroots companies submit monthly to the headquarters have been substantially streamlined; the system of "problem-resolution receipts" (解难回执单) for grassroots assistance assignments has been comprehensively implemented, with officer and soldier satisfaction and the actual effectiveness of resolving difficulties and helping those in need established as the primary criteria for evaluating the quality and effectiveness of headquarters cadres' assistance work; a first-contact responsibility system (首接负责制) for grassroots difficulties has been established and improved, eliminating the phenomenon of grassroots units repeatedly filing reports and writing explanatory statements; the effectiveness of reducing burdens at the grassroots has been linked to headquarters cadres' commendations, awards, promotions, and rank advancements, vigorously correcting the deviation in the view of performance (政绩观) that "emphasizes traces over results" (重痕迹、轻实效)… As one practical measure after another has been implemented, grassroots units' satisfaction with headquarters work has risen substantially.
"Establishing and practicing a correct view of performance (正确政绩观) means doing more real work and not engaging in empty formalism." The detachment's leadership told this reporter that as a number of difficulties that have long plagued the grassroots — such as the difficulty of accessing medical care for remote units — have been effectively resolved, officers and soldiers' enthusiasm and motivation for training and combat readiness are higher and stronger. Recently, the detachment has successfully completed multiple major duty security tasks, the overall excellence rate in military training assessments has risen markedly, and the level of the unit's all-around development has reached a new height.