Government-run "non-governmental charitable organizations"
"The charity industry has modern charity rules, such as charging administrative fees. However, civil servants eat financial meals and can't accept a penny. We put the two together and a very strange thing came out. "
The Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement (called the Red Crescent Movement for religious reasons in Islamic countries) is the largest charity organization in the world, which was founded by Swiss banker Henri Dunant in 1864. Its origin is that Henry Dunant found that the wounded and prisoners of war could not be rescued, and launched this private and neutral wounded rescue organization.
Mr. Divid Pierre Marquet, Director of East Asia Communication of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), told Southern Weekend that there are three major organizations in the global Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement in peacetime: ICRC, which has followed the traditional mission of providing humanitarian assistance to prisoners of war, is still active in local war areas; 186 Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies in independent countries; And the International Federation of Red Cross Societies, which coordinates national Red Cross Societies and organizes transnational rescue.
Since its establishment, the Red Cross Movement has established the basic principles of humanity, justice, neutrality, independence, voluntary service, unity and universality, which means that it should proceed from the spirit of humanity and should not discriminate against nationality, race, religious belief, class prejudice and political opinions, and should never participate in debates with politics, race, religion or ideology; National Red Cross Societies are humanitarian aid providers of their own governments, but they must remain independent. Moreover, the sport is voluntary and never expects to make a profit in any way.
In other words, the Red Cross Movement deliberately kept a distance from various political and commercial forces from the beginning, trying to be "neutral" and "independent" from the government. In order to show their transcendental support for the Red Cross Movement, although the Red Cross Societies in various countries belong to non-governmental organizations, their "honorary presidents" are usually heads of state or representatives of the royal family.
In the peaceful period of half a century, charity has become the main function of the Red Cross Societies in various countries. The China Red Cross is no exception. In China, the Red Cross, which should belong to a non-governmental organization, has been alienated into a government-run organization closely integrated with the power system.
China Red Cross Society is a vice-ministerial unit directly under the State Council. The China Red Cross is connected with the government system from the central government to the county and township levels. Its honorary president is the head of the local government, the president is the administrative deputy of the government in charge of culture and education, and most of the directors are also the heads of government departments and state-owned enterprises. The leaders of the Red Cross Societies at all levels shall be appointed and removed by the government. The Red Cross receives nearly 300 million yuan in financial allocation every year (data in 2007), which is equivalent to its income from donations. The funds of the Red Cross Societies at all levels are only responsible to the Council.
There are three kinds of non-profit organizations in China, one is foundation, and the other is public offering or non-public offering. One is a membership society; The third type is private non-enterprise units. The Red Cross belongs to the second kind of people's organizations, and similar organizations include trade unions and women's federations. However, in the coordinates of the administrative system, the Red Cross is actually more "administrative" than ordinary institutions. Because it is graded according to the administrative sequence of government agencies, the staff formally employed by it belong to the establishment of "reference civil servants" and are graded according to the administrative level of national civil servants 15. For example, the president of the Red Cross enjoys the treatment of deputy ministerial level, while the county Red Cross is a department-level unit under the Health Bureau.
According to the latest statistics of the Red Cross Society in official website, as of 2007, the National Red Cross Society (excluding Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan branches) has a total of 7,774 staff members, including 6,745 full-time. A vice president of the Red Cross Society of a county in southwest China told Southern Weekend that the Red Cross Society of this county mainly deals with the local government, not with the Red Cross Society at a higher level, and has never dealt with the Red Cross Foundation. Every year, the activities of the Red Cross Society in this county cost tens of thousands of yuan. "It is enough to find a little reimbursement from the governing units."
In legal form, the Red Cross raises funds from the society in the form of public fundraising. It is both a government and a charity organization. "The charity industry has modern charity rules, such as charging administrative fees. However, civil servants eat financial meals and can't accept a penny. We put the two together and a very strange thing came out. " Wang, former director of the charity promotion department of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, told the Southern Weekend reporter.
Wang told Southern Weekend that the Red Cross Society is actually the only "non-governmental organization" preserved in the history of China's planned economic system. After the founding of New China, during the socialist transformation in 1950' s, almost all non-governmental organizations such as "nurseries" and "widows' halls" were banned. Because of the international status of the Red Cross and the commitments it made at that time, it remained, but it was later administratively managed by the "shining light" in the planned economy period. "After decades, this system has accumulated, and now it is a very big challenge to transform it. "The king said.
Another important reason is that "the government believes that financial allocation cannot be given to non-governmental organizations casually, and it is necessary to maintain control over the currency." A non-governmental NGO told Southern Weekend reporter.
Before the main road is opened, the path will be chaotic.
On the one hand, the China Red Cross, which monopolizes the public offering license, has no incentive to actively raise funds, because all the funds raised by its secondary funds are entrusted to its account; On the other hand, because there is no competitive pressure, there is no incentive to use donations efficiently or to preserve and increase the value of donations.
According to China's laws, private individuals, companies or associations must be affiliated with the Red Cross as a secondary special fund, without independent accounts and legal person status, and the use of funds is strictly controlled by the Red Cross. Non-governmental forces that really want to do charity need to break through many policy restrictions and go to the Red Cross to plead for "worship the yamen" in order to get through this road. This institutional arrangement has been dubbed by experts in the industry as "only the emperor is gracious, and the people are not allowed to do good."
In other countries, the threshold of folk charity is far less than that of China. In many countries, individuals or families can initiate and register a foundation to raise funds and do good deeds. Its credibility depends entirely on the extent to which it has fulfilled its commitments to donors. "In China, the avenue is closed, so the path is chaotic." Wang said to him.
On the one hand, the China Red Cross, which monopolizes the public offering license, has no incentive to actively raise funds, because all the funds raised by its secondary funds are entrusted to its account; On the other hand, because there is no competitive pressure, there is no incentive to use donations efficiently or to preserve and increase the value of donations. This is also reflected in the annual report of the China Red Cross Red Foundation, and the investment income of its donations is zero year after year; And the total net assets in the account increased from about 654.38+0.5 billion yuan in 2007 to about 770 million yuan in 2009.
The Red Cross has mastered a large number of government resources and monopolized the charity license, which has created the possibility of power rent-seeking. Some businessmen cooperate with the Red Cross under the guise of charity, but actually value the big trees backed by the Red Cross. In the case of Guo Meimei, former employees of Luo Tian Group broke the news that the purpose of Luo Tian's charitable donation was to gain government support and establish relations with the government system.
A foundation person who did not want to be named told Southern Weekend that individual members of the Red Cross were "treated like officials of the National Development and Reform Commission" when they went to places.
After the reform and opening up, in order to standardize charity, China introduced the management mechanism of international modern foundation. 65438-0994 China Red Cross Foundation The Red Cross Foundation was incorporated in the Ministry of Civil Affairs. However, the original public offering qualification and public offering license resources of the Red Cross were not cancelled at the same time due to institutional reasons. As a result, there are two organizations with independent public offering qualifications in China: the Red Cross Society and the Red Cross Foundation. This is also rare in the Red Cross all over the world.
Moreover, the Red Cross Society directly led by the State Council has more freedom than the Red Cross Foundation, and the establishment of its branches and funds only needs the approval of the China Red Cross Society, not the approval of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, the competent department of the Foundation.