On December 21, 2015, the verdict of the "Tsinghua High School construction site collapse accident" was announced, and 4 supervisors were sentenced, causing industry shock. On December 28, a WeChat platform launched a survey: "Tsinghua High School collapse accident: 4 supervisors received heavy sentences while no senior executives of the construction unit have been brought to justice. Do you still dare to be a supervisor?" It attracted attention from thousands of netizens.
The survey results show that 92% of people are not optimistic about the supervision industry and are unwilling to engage in it; only 8% said they are still optimistic about the supervision industry. The "one-sided" situation makes countless practitioners want to cry without tears, and also puts the industry regulatory authorities in an awkward position—how can this industry develop? Do we still need it?
Since 1988, the supervision system has been implemented, and now it has gone through nearly 30 years. In the first half, the contribution of the supervision industry is obvious to all, but with changes in relevant policies, excessive expectations and punishments from governments at all levels, the supervision industry has "become worse the more it works," and its social reputation has "declined all the way." Especially in recent years, the supervision industry has changed its flavor. Whenever a construction safety accident occurs, the final blame is pointed at the supervisor's inaction...
An expert from the Construction Supervision Association said indignantly: "If this continues, the supervision industry cannot be done anymore!" Many people in the industry worry that this case is likely to produce a "demonstration effect" across the country, which is a fatal blow to the supervision industry!
Terrible "Demonstration Effect"
On December 20, 2015, a particularly major landslide accident occurred at the muck receiving site in Guangming New District, Shenzhen. The procuratorate approved the arrest of 5 people, including Lin Mouwu, operator of the temporary muck receiving site in Hong'ao, Guangming New District, Zhuang Mouming, on-site commander of the receiving site, and Liu Mouyang, supervisor of the receiving site, on suspicion of the crime of major responsibility accident.
According to a report by The Wall Street Journal: Bian Yuxiang, deputy general manager of the local engineering supervision company Shenzhen Jianxing Project Management Consulting Co., Ltd., said that the company proposed on December 17, 2015 to suspend the operation of the receiving site and resume work after the identified safety risks were resolved.
On January 6, 2016, to solve dust pollution, the Jinan Municipal Construction Committee used a "killer move" to suspend bidding for 10 construction companies and 5 supervision units. "Supervisors are also responsible for dust pollution caused by construction unit production activities. Which country has such supervision content? Where is justice?" Many supervisors' complaints sound more like struggling cries.
If this continues, isn't it pushing supervisors to death?
Supervision Industry Launches Self-Rescue Actions
The Tsinghua High School accident made supervisors tremble with fear, and the Shenzhen landslide accident once again sounded the safety alarm. In the Tsinghua High School collapse accident, the court made a criminal judgment against the supervisors on the grounds that "they did not supervise the construction unit's full-time safety officer staffing and the long-term absence of the filed project manager." What should supervisors do? Reporting to the administrative department may lead to retaliation, and not reporting may lead to judgments like in the Tsinghua High School case!
Under the strong appeal of supervision enterprises and many practitioners, the China Construction Supervision Association has initiated relevant research and discussions, and supervision associations in many places across the country have taken action. The fastest action was taken by Shenzhen.
The Shenzhen Association of Supervision Engineers and the Shenzhen Construction Supervision Association issued an emergency document, suggesting that all member enterprises must regard the absence of the construction unit's project manager and full-time safety production management personnel as a "serious safety accident hidden danger" and issue a project suspension order, and simultaneously report to the construction unit and relevant government authorities. Given that supervision enterprises are employed by the construction unit, issuing a project suspension order for the above reasons often fails to get the support of the construction unit, and reporting to relevant authorities may also lead to retaliation from the construction unit and the construction unit, and may even be deemed by the construction unit as unqualified performance until the contract is terminated. From January 1, 2016, all member enterprises, in addition to strictly performing their statutory duties of safety production management in accordance with regulations, standards, and the work requirements listed in the "Evaluation Form for the Performance of Statutory Duties of Safety Production Management by Supervision Agencies," are advised to conduct monthly attendance checks on the project managers and full-time safety production management personnel of all engineering projects under their supervision, fill in the "Attendance Form for Construction Unit Project Management Personnel" for each project, and before the 5th of each month, deliver the "Evaluation Form for the Performance of Statutory Duties of Safety Production Management by Supervision Agencies" and the "Attendance Form for Construction Unit Project Management Personnel" for all projects of the previous month to the association secretariat, which will compile them and submit a special report to relevant government authorities (construction, transportation, water affairs, etc.).
Tsinghua High School Accident Case Not Yet Closed
The responsible units ultimately identified in the Tsinghua High School collapse accident include: the construction unit Tsinghua University, the general contractor Beijing Construction Engineering Group First Construction Engineering Co., Ltd., the labor subcontractor Anyang Chengcheng Construction Labor Service Co., Ltd., the supervision unit Beijing Huaqing Jike Engineering Management Co., Ltd., and the design unit Tsinghua University Architectural Design and Research Institute. The owner is Tsinghua University, the design unit is Tsinghua's, and the supervision unit is a joint-stock enterprise subordinate to Tsinghua University. The owner, supervisor, and designer are all part of the same family.
The accident investigation report shows that "individual sections of the construction drawings were incorrectly expressed, the sign-in records during the design disclosure process were incomplete, and the signing time on the disclosure records did not match the actual disclosure time. The tender construction period and contract construction period determined by Tsinghua University were compressed by 27.6% compared with the quota construction period calculated by the Municipal Housing and Urban-Rural Development Commission; and it was emphasized that the project's exterior facade should be unveiled during the Tsinghua High School centennial celebration in October 2015, which had a certain impact on the construction unit's schedule."
It is under such intricate relationships that multiple supervisors were imprisoned for bearing supervision responsibility for the engineering accident.
Many supervision experts believe that in the verdict of the Tsinghua High School collapse accident case, the responsibility of the supervisor actually exceeded that of the general contractor, and even more than that of the owner who blindly compressed the construction period and caused rush work, which is incredible.
It is reported that the supervisors sentenced in the Tsinghua High School collapse accident case have appealed. We sincerely hope that there will be a turning point.
Whoever started the trouble should end it
In recent years, due to unclear definition of supervision responsibilities, safety responsibilities have been infinitely expanded, and even leaders of regulatory authorities believe: if an accident occurs in a project, can the supervisor be without responsibility? Joint liability, low income, and high risk have caused the loss of some outstanding talents in the supervision industry, seriously affecting the healthy development of the supervision industry.
The "Construction Law" stipulates that the safety of the construction site is the responsibility of the construction enterprise, and there is no clear requirement for the safety responsibility of the supervision unit. In 2003, the State Council promulgated the "Regulations on the Administration of Safety Production in Construction Projects," which for the first time clearly stated that supervision should bear safety production responsibilities and proposed the content of supervision safety production work. Since then, supporting regulations based on this have been issued one after another, and various localities have also introduced a series of related policy measures, so that "supervision work is a basket, and all difficult work is put into it." The content of safety production work has continued to increase, responsibilities have been infinitely expanded, and coupled with the different legal bases and standards used by relevant departments in handling safety accidents, improper and excessive penalties against supervisors have increasingly occurred.
In 2006, the Ministry of Construction issued the "Several Opinions on Implementing the Supervision Responsibility for Safety Production in Construction Projects," which clarified and specified the safety production management responsibilities of supervision, requiring that all matters related to construction safety production, including the establishment and implementation of construction unit management systems, personnel qualifications and staffing, construction methods and environment, quality and use of engineering machinery, construction safety inspections and supervision, etc., must be supervised by supervisors. In reality, whether chief supervisors or professional supervisors, all are busy with construction safety supervision. On-site safety supervisors are even more worried and hardworking than the full-time safety personnel of the construction unit. It is both laughable and cry-worthy!
What's more, in some places where safety accidents occur, they do not ask how the construction unit did it, but first question how the supervisor managed it; penalties for supervisors are heavier than those for construction enterprises, and in some accidents only supervisors are punished, with no responsibility for the construction unit. If a project wins an award, it is because the construction unit did well; if there is a problem, it is because the supervision unit did not manage well. What kind of logic is this?
Whoever started the trouble should end it. The embarrassment and downfall of the supervision industry today are fundamentally due to the government's inaccurate positioning of the supervision industry and problems in top-level system design. If the supervision industry is still needed and hoped to develop healthily, without breakthroughs in laws, regulations, and policies, all other measures may just keep this industry lingering on.
For ordinary supervisors, what they need to do now is to stick to their professional bottom line, do their work well, and learn to protect themselves and "guard their own doors."
Supervisors, cherish as you go!
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