Ministry of Ecology and Environment: Adhere to a "zero tolerance" attitude to crack down on counterfeiting

On August 30, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment held a regular press conference in August. Pei Xiaofei, spokesperson of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, said in response to a reporter's question that the Ministry of Ecology and Environment has always adhered to a "zero tolerance" attitude to crack down on counterfeiting. Since the "14th Five-Year Plan", the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, together with the Supreme Law, the Supreme People's Procuratorate, the Ministry of Public Security, and the State Administration for Market Regulation, has carried out special rectification against fraud by third-party environmental protection service agencies for four consecutive years, and has continued to maintain a high-pressure situation.

Pei Xiaofei introduced that first, a number of typical cases were investigated and dealt with. As of the end of last year, a total of 2260 third-party environmental service agencies that committed illegal activities had been investigated and dealt with, 457 typical cases had been publicly exposed, and 193 cases had been transferred to criminal cases. In addition, we also investigated and dealt with 4255 fraud cases involving enterprises in self-monitoring, and transferred 930 suspected illegal and criminal cases to relevant departments, which served as a deterrent and warning.

The second is to establish a joint law enforcement mechanism. Our Ministry, together with the Supreme People's Procuratorate and the Ministry of Public Security, has built a joint law enforcement mechanism that connects and promotes executions in an integrated manner, forming a "combination fist" of joint consultation, joint listing and supervision, joint announcement of typical cases, and joint deployment of relevant work, effectively improving The effectiveness of supervision and law enforcement has solved the problems of difficulty in filing, obtaining evidence, and identifying the nature of EIA fraud cases in the past.

The third is to further improve the legal system. The Supreme People's Procuratorate and the Supreme Law's revision have issued the "Two Supreme People's Procuratorate" judicial interpretations, clarifying the conviction and sentencing standards for third-party environmental protection service agencies to provide false supporting documents in the process of environmental impact assessment, environmental monitoring, and carbon emission inspection and testing. The "Interim Regulations on the Administration of Carbon Emissions Trading" issued by the State Council severely punish institutions and persons in charge of falsifying carbon emission data, and revoke their qualifications for practicing if the circumstances are serious. These systems have strengthened our regulatory basis for third-party environmental service agencies.

This year, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment will continue to work with the Supreme Law, the Supreme People's Procuratorate, the Ministry of Public Security, and the State Administration for Market Regulation to jointly deploy and carry out in-depth special rectification actions for fraud by third-party environmental protection service agencies, and continue to maintain a high-pressure posture. Compared with previous years, the following changes:

First, the scope of the field is wider. While continuing to crack down on fraud by third-party agencies in the two major areas of environmental impact assessment and monitoring, we will also severely investigate and punish third-party fraud and illegal activities in the fields of independent acceptance of environmental protection on completion of construction projects, motor vehicle emission inspection, and quality management of greenhouse gas emission data.

The second is to continuously increase penalties. We require all localities to conduct a review of the rectifications of third-party institutions investigated and dealt with in accordance with the law in recent years, and to severely punish those who still have fraudulent behavior in accordance with the law and regulations, especially those who "have received more than two administrative penalties for providing false supporting documents within two years, and who have provided false supporting documents" and other consistent with the transfer of suspected crimes, criminal transfers shall be made in a timely manner.

The third is to continue to improve the synergy of supervision. Continue to give full play to the collaborative advantages of multiple departments, and make good use of means such as project supervision, hierarchical investigation, and joint listing supervision to form a stronger regulatory synergy and improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the crackdown. At the same time, we will strengthen traceability crackdowns and impose penalties in accordance with relevant laws and regulations on third-party organizations that have violated laws and regulations and upstream and downstream related enterprises and units discovered by extended expansion.

The fourth is to comprehensively upgrade regulatory means. Further strengthen the "penetrating" supervision of big data and artificial intelligence, and use the power of technology to build a strong defense line against fraud. Use on-site rapid monitoring equipment, data analysis technology and other means to improve the ability to discover and investigate problems.

Pei Xiaofei said that the news media and all sectors of society are welcome to give full play to the advantages of public opinion supervision and mass supervision to provide us with clues on relevant issues in a timely manner, and everyone will work together to promote the healthy and orderly development of the third-party environmental protection service market.