“Falsification throughout the entire process”

There have been many recent actions to combat the falsification of environmental monitoring data.
On May 8th, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment announced seven typical cases of automatic monitoring and fraud by key polluting units, sounding the alarm for fraudulent enterprises. Subsequently, the Ministry of Environment, in conjunction with the Supreme People's Procuratorate and the Ministry of Public Security, issued a notice to launch a nationwide special operation on the illegal and criminal activities of falsifying automatic monitoring data of polluting units.
Why did the Ministry of Environment suddenly increase its crackdown on monitoring data fraud? On May 26th, at the regular press conference of the Ministry of Environment in May, Bai Qiuyong, Director of the Ecological Environment Monitoring Department, gave the answer.
 

The picture shows the scene of the press conference

He stated that ecological environment monitoring data is the fundamental basis for evaluating the quality of the ecological environment, assessing the effectiveness of pollution control and ecological protection, and implementing ecological environment management and decision-making. The Central Committee of the Communist Party of China has always attached great importance to the quality of ecological environment monitoring data, and the Ministry of Environment has also maintained a "zero tolerance" attitude towards fraudulent monitoring data.
In order to ensure the accuracy and completeness of monitoring data, the Ministry of Environment has done a lot of work. For example, to transfer the authority of environmental quality monitoring and establish an operational mechanism of "who assesses, who monitors"; Developing ecological environment monitoring technology and equipment, and continuously promoting the application of satellite remote sensing data; Serious investigation and punishment will be carried out on cases of falsifying environmental air monitoring data in Xi'an and Linfen, as well as falsifying water quality monitoring data in Yueqing, Zhejiang. Personnel from the monitoring institutions involved will be sentenced to imprisonment ranging from 1 year and 8 months to 6 months.
Through these efforts, the accuracy of environmental monitoring data has been greatly improved. A survey conducted by the Development Research Center of the State Council shows that the authenticity of environmental quality monitoring data from the government, especially the central government, has significantly improved, and the subjective perception of the public is basically consistent with objective environmental data.
However, Bai Qiuyong stated that the current self-monitoring data quality of polluting units, especially the automatic monitoring data quality of key polluting units, is not satisfactory and has become a prominent weakness in monitoring quality management.
A typical example is the recent "Tangshan Iron and Steel Enterprise Environmental Illegal Case", with three core issues: illegal production, illegal pollution discharge, and fraud.
In terms of fraud, the fraud of production facility records, monitoring systems, and monitoring data in enterprises is a "whole process fraud".
On March 11th, Minister of Environment Huang Runqiu arrived in Tangshan without saying hello and went straight to the scene to conduct inspections at four steel companies, including Hebei Iron and Steel Tangshan Stainless Steel Company, Tangshan Jinma Iron and Steel Group Co., Ltd., Tangshan Chunxing Special Steel Co., Ltd., and Tangshan Donghua Iron and Steel Enterprise Group Co., Ltd.
As a result, it was found that four companies generally had the problem of falsifying production records, and some even exchanged information and deleted production records to cope with inspections.
After Minister Huang Runqiu of the Ministry of Environment returned to Beijing, Tangshan City drew lessons from this and conducted in-depth investigations. Four joint inspection teams composed of the city's ecological environment, public security and other departments were established to inspect each steel enterprise in the city one by one. The results showed that Songting Steel and the relevant operation and maintenance personnel responsible for online monitoring were suspected of data fraud.
The problems exposed by Tangshan steel enterprises became the trigger for a series of subsequent actions to crack down on data fraud.
How to improve the quality of self-monitoring data by polluting units and ensure the authenticity of environmental quality monitoring data?
The Ministry of Environment plans to start from four aspects:
1. Urge local party committees and governments to effectively implement their leadership responsibilities. Establish a sound responsibility system and working mechanism to prevent and punish the falsification of environmental monitoring data.
2. Consolidate the main responsibility of pollutant discharge units. Implement the legal requirement that 'polluting units shall be responsible for the authenticity and accuracy of self-monitoring data'.
3. Strengthen the direct responsibility of ecological environment monitoring institutions. Establish a responsibility traceability system of "whoever counts is responsible, whoever signs is responsible", and the monitoring agency and its responsible person are responsible for the authenticity and accuracy of the data.
4. Adhere to the joint management of multiple departments and implement comprehensive policies. By comprehensively utilizing various means such as law, economy, technology, and administration, we will strike a "combination punch" to severely punish those who engage in fraud and deception, and accelerate the realization of "dare not falsify".
Overall, the focus is on consolidating responsibilities from three main entities, namely local party committees and governments, polluting units, and testing institutions.
Especially for monitoring agencies, it is necessary to establish a responsibility traceability system of "whoever issues the data is responsible, and whoever signs is responsible", and strengthen their direct responsibility.
 

The picture shows Bai Qiuyong, Director of the Ecological Environment Monitoring Department of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment

“Violation of regulations by monitoring agencies or lifetime ban from employment”

 

Specifically, how does the Ministry of Ecology and Environment plan to strengthen the responsibility of monitoring agencies?
There are mainly four aspects, abbreviated as "four enhancements".
The first "reinforcement" is to strengthen the implementation of the main responsibility.
Mainly through strict law enforcement and strengthened supervision, implementing laws and regulations such as the Environmental Protection Law, the Air Pollution Prevention and Control Law, and the Regulations on the Administration of Pollutant Discharge Permits, we will promote the implementation of relevant provisions that require monitoring agencies and pollutant discharge units to be responsible for the authenticity and accuracy of monitoring data, and continuously improve the responsibility traceability mechanism of "whoever provides the data is responsible".
Simply put, it means establishing a responsibility traceability mechanism based on the principle of 'whoever provides the data is responsible'.
The second "reinforcement" is to strengthen the joint supervision throughout the entire process.
We should leverage the advantages of ecological environment and market supervision departments, and implement full chain supervision and management of "before, during, and after the event".
In terms of pre admission, we have jointly issued the "Supplementary Requirements for Qualification Certification of Inspection and Testing Institutions and Evaluation of Ecological Environment Monitoring Institutions"; In terms of in-process and post event supervision, we jointly issued the "Notice on Strengthening the Supervision and Management of Ecological Environment Monitoring Institutions" and established a mechanism for sharing regulatory information between the two departments; In addition, a three-year action plan (2018-2020) for ecological environment monitoring quality supervision and inspection should be implemented.
In this way, the supervision of monitoring agencies has been strengthened throughout the entire process.
The third "strengthening" is to strengthen the regulation and supervision in accordance with the law.
At present, there is basically a legal basis for punishing the falsification of monitoring data. Especially in the Criminal Law and the judicial interpretations of the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate, it is clearly stated that those who engage in monitoring fraud shall bear criminal responsibility.
According to Amendment XI of the Criminal Law, personnel of intermediary organizations responsible for environmental monitoring who intentionally provide false certification documents shall be sentenced to imprisonment for not more than five years. According to the judicial interpretations of the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate, the crimes of polluting the environment and damaging computer information systems can also be applied to fraudulent monitoring behaviors.
In this way, there is legal support for 'monitoring fraud and assuming criminal responsibility'.
In addition, the Ministry of Environment has also cooperated in issuing the "Measures for Determining and Dealing with Fraudulent Environmental Monitoring Data", which clarifies the relevant situations of forging and tampering with monitoring data and provides technical support for judicial enforcement.
The fourth "reinforcement" is to strengthen the severe punishment of fraudulent behavior.
In the past few years, the Ministry of Environment has investigated and dealt with multiple cases of monitoring data fraud, such as the "Xi'an Environmental Monitoring Station Data Fraud Case" (2017), the "Linfen National Environmental Air Automatic Monitoring Data Fraud Case" (2018), and the "Zhejiang Yueqing National Surface Water Automatic Monitoring Data Fraud Case" (2020). For the crime of damaging computer information systems, two employees of a company involved in the Linfen case were sentenced to eight months and six months in prison respectively, and the person in charge and relevant employees of a company involved in the Yueqing case were sentenced to imprisonment ranging from one year and eight months to six months respectively.
These typical cases have caused significant "earthquakes" in the industry and played a strong warning role.
Next, the Ministry of Environment plans to continue to strengthen the management of monitoring agencies in two areas.
Firstly, we need to accelerate the promulgation of the "Regulations on Ecological Environment Monitoring".
In this document, the legal regulatory status of the ecological environment department will be clarified, and the supervision and inspection content and regulatory authority will be refined.
For ecological environment monitoring institutions or polluting units that violate regulations, they will also be ordered to make corrections, have their illegal gains confiscated, be fined, be prohibited from operating within a time limit or for life, be ordered to restrict production or stop production for rectification, be ordered to suspend business or close down, and other penalties will be imposed depending on the situation.
With this specialized administrative regulation, the management of environmental monitoring will become more specialized and standardized, which will help improve data quality.
According to public information, the "Regulations on Ecological Environment Monitoring (Draft)" have been reviewed and approved in principle at the executive meeting of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment held in February 2020. The Ministry of Ecology and Environment pointed out that the formulation of the "Regulations on Ecological Environment Monitoring" is an urgent need to promote the improvement of the top-level design of ecological environment monitoring. It will promote the lawful implementation of monitoring work, the lawful administration of monitoring management, and the legality and effectiveness of monitoring data. It will further clarify and standardize the responsibilities and obligations of relevant entities such as competent departments, monitoring institutions, monitoring personnel, and pollutant discharge units.
Secondly, maintain a high-pressure situation in cracking down on counterfeits.
For fraudulent activities that comply with the crimes of polluting the environment, providing false certification documents, and damaging computer information systems, strict punishment shall be imposed in accordance with the law to form a strong deterrent.
At the same time, it is necessary to make good use of economic means such as environmental protection taxes, ecological damage compensation, and credit evaluations to make counterfeiters pay an unbearable price and create an atmosphere of "dare not fake".
Recently, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, the Supreme People's Procuratorate, and the Ministry of Public Security have jointly issued a notice to launch a special operation nationwide to crack down on illegal and criminal activities such as automatic monitoring data falsification by polluting units.
In short, on the one hand, a dedicated "Regulations on Ecological Environment Monitoring" will be introduced, and on the other hand, a high-pressure crackdown on counterfeits will be maintained, with a dual approach of strengthening management and cracking down on fraud.
Source: Environmental Protection Circle

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