Fireworks are inappropriately stacked in the corner of the warehouse, there is a large gap between the lower end of the warehouse gate and the ground, records of hidden danger inspection are not up to standard... Recently, law enforcement officials of Suining Emergency Management Bureau  inspected a fireworks wholesale company in Daying County, found a number of hidden dangers and problems on the spot, and put forward clear requirements for rectification.

This is a scene in Sichuan Province's efforts to promote inspection and rectification of major hidden dangers. Since the beginning of this year, Sichuan has continuously optimized supervision and inspection work, made efforts in checklist-based management, information-based management, name-and-shame measures, and enterprise self-examination, strictly implemented risk prevention and control measures, and promoted targeted law enforcement to achieve results.

Targeted law enforcement

Taking multiple measures to help enterprises fulfill their responsibilities

"Dust is easy to accumulate at the crushing workshop, which thus needs to be cleaned regularly. Moreover, the cleaning system should be posted on the wall on site. Please make rectification immediately..." Recently, a provincial-level steering group sent by the Office of Sichuan Provincial Work Safety Commission  carried out inspection at a Chinese Baijiu enterprise in Luzhou City, and ordered the company to rectify the existing problems within a time limit.

Sichuan's inspection and rectification campaign is in the stage of targeted law enforcement. Since May this year, Sichuan Province has continued to promote the major accident potential inspection and rectification campaign 2023. The campaign focuses on major accident potentials that are prone to cause mass deaths and injuries, illegal hot work and chaotic outsourcing and rental management revealed in accidents, and other prominent problems such as enterprises not carrying out emergency drills and employees unfamiliar with escape exits in 18 key industry fields including mines, hazardous chemicals, transportation, urban gas, industry and trade, and special equipment.

In the inspection and rectification campaign, it is particularly important to define the responsibilities of industry authorities, safety regulation authorities, local governments and business entities for work safety. Sichuan's localities adhere to the combination of a leading role of local governments and industry supervision, the combination of enterprise self-examination and self-correction and government inspection, and the combination of supervision and inspection with joint law enforcement, so as to continuously improve the capacity and level of safety regulation. As enterprises shoulder the primary responsibility to inspect hidden dangers, localities have urged efforts to inspect and rectify major accident potentials at enterprises, and encouraged the heads of enterprises to perform their duties according to law and drive all employees to implement the work safety accountability system, so as to ensure effective implementation of the inspection and rectification work.

In Gulin County, Luzhou City, under the supervision of county-level authorities and with the participation of local townships, mining enterprises entrusted technology companies to carry out inspection. All sides shouldered their due responsibilities. Through "technical evaluation + professional review + key supervision", they completed the assessment of potential geological hazards and flash flood risks in 46 mines across the county, and identified 122 hidden dangers. According to the rectification opinions of experts, local government authorities supervise all mining enterprises to complete rectification and effectively implement responsibilities for work safety.

In terms of supervision and inspection standards, Sichuan Province has followed the principle of "not issuing written notifications, not reminding local governments, not hearing any report, or not being received or accompanied by local officials, but directly inspecting localities and spots", dispatched steering groups at all levels to carry out front-line inspection in key industry fields, adopted the four-step method of "listening, observing, asking and checking", inspected one by one, and had the courage to tackle the toughest problems, so as to deepen and substantiate the supervision and inspection work.

Not long ago, Sichuan Provincial steering groups completed the supervision and inspection of 126 industrial and trade enterprises in 21 cities (prefectures), and found 966 problems and hidden dangers—including 106 major accident potentials—of which the provincial authority will supervise the rectification.

With the continuous promotion of targeted law enforcement, all parts of Sichuan have stepped up law enforcement inspection, and, through cross-inspection, "dual fining in one case", accountability investigation, name-and-shame measures, regulatory talks, joint punishment, and suspending production for rectification, pushed enterprises to fulfill their responsibilities for rectification and eliminate hidden dangers in a timely manner.

The cross-inspection group of Nanchong Emergency Management Bureau  inspected many hazardous chemical enterprises in Yibin, and put forward rectification opinions on the problems existing in some enterprises such as inadequate emergency rescue equipment and imperfect emergency plans. In Ya'an, the Emergency Management Bureau of Lushan County  implemented "dual fining in one case": After a fine of 26,000 yuan was imposed on an industrial and trade enterprise with multiple work safety problems, the company's safety head was given an administrative penalty of 4,000 yuan. In Yibin, the emergency management authority has carried out a comprehensive inspection and rectification campaign for work safety in coal mines across the city. According to the method of "full-coverage inspection at the county level and spot check on 30% at the municipal level", strict law enforcement inspection has been carried out. Those who are not serious about inspection and rectification and go through the motions must start all over again.

As of the end of October, Sichuan's emergency management authorities have inspected 5,944 enterprises, and rectified 1,517 major accident potentials in the stage of targeted law enforcement, effectively promoting early detection, early warning and early disposal of major hidden dangers.

Technological empowerment

Promoting the construction of three-level checklist system and realize closed-loop management

Regular automatic reminders, automatic alarms at the overdue, full-platform automatic name-and-shame measure of failure to complete on schedule... In Yibin, through big data, AI technology, and checklist management, the checklist-based supervision and management platform of work safety responsibilities has recorded more than 45,000 key production and operation enterprises in the city, connected with more than 60,000 responsible industry supervision persons, and effectively supervised the performance of responsible work safety persons at all levels and posts through electronic safety risk ledgers. Thanks to the precision and efficiency of this platform, Yibin dynamically identified more than 35,000 potential safety risks in the third quarter of this year.

Sichuan has continuously deepened the checklist-based management, and adopted the model of "industry commonality + enterprise individuality + informatization" to promote the application of information technology in checklist-based management at provincial, municipal and county levels.

In terms of the checklist-based management for work safety, all localities, authorities and enterprises have formulated a responsibility checklist according to the key points in work safety laws, regulations, policies, standards, systems and norms, as well as the problems found in inspection and supervision, clarified the responsibilities of all levels and posts, perform duties, act, and investigated responsibilities according to the checklist, so as to build a closed-loop management system of work safety responsibilities.

Local governments also moved forward in an orderly manner. In August this year, the Work Safety Commission of Aba Prefecture issued the Checklist of Prefectural-level Work Safety Regulation in Emerging Industry Fields (Version 2023),  which lists the safety supervision responsibilities of relevant departments in 45 emerging industry fields such as homestays, scripted entertainment venues, private cinemas and childcare institutions to eliminate blind spots and loopholes in safety supervision.

In terms of informatized and intelligent management exploration, Sichuan actively promotes the construction of "Sichuan Safety Code—Sichuan Work Safety Checklist-based Management System", continuously improves the information-based closed control capacity of potential risks, and strives to manage people, issues and risks through "one code" according to the idea of "one code for each, presenting all-encompassing information in the code, defining responsibilities in the code and fulfilling responsibilities on the code".

In Sichuan Lutianhua Co., Ltd.,  the "safety code + checklist-based" intelligent information system has efficiently empowered work safety. Previously, during patrol inspection in a liquid ammonia storage area, the field operator Yang Mao found that the ice maker 103-LB suddenly tripped, with a large amount of sparks. Yang Mao immediately touched the identification code of the ice machine with an explosion-proof intelligent patrol mobile phone, successfully matched it with the problem station, and reported to his superiors. Later, multiple departments responded quickly, and completed the disposal. "Through this system, a safety inspector scans the QR code of equipment with a mobile phone, on which will appear the checklist of post responsibilities, the checklist of risk control the checklist of safety inspection, as well as the safety inspection process, frequency and results of the equipment concerned," said a relevant person in charge at the company.

In addition, Sichuan Province has integrated 18 safety-related information systems to build a work safety risk prevention and control platform. For high-risk key areas such as hazardous chemicals, coal mines and non-coal mines, efforts are made to carry out daily safety risk analysis, real-time alarm and disposal, early warning information release, tracking and implementation of control measures, etc. As of the end of October, the platform had analyzed 278 higher risks, and given early warnings to avoid 82 major risks, effectively improving the ability to predict, warn and prevent various work safety risks.

Multi-party supervision

Initiating "media exposure + snapshot" to make rectification more effective

"We feel ashamed that the company has been exposed." Recently, after a Mianzhu-based machining company's hidden dangers in work safety were exposed by the media, the head of the enterprise blushed and said that they would certainly learn lessons and not perfunctorily, but unconditionally implement rectification.

"If the work safety management of enterprises is not in place or standardized, and there are major hidden dangers, one exposure is better than emphasizing a thousand times." An official of Deyang Emergency Management Bureau  said that through converged media and WeChat official account, Deyang has exposed 36 major accident potentials in fire protection, industry and trade, hazardous chemicals, construction and other industry fields.

Name-and-shame measures have become an important way to urge localities, departments and enterprises to implement safety responsibilities. In this way, effective and targeted efforts have been made to solve problems such as inadequate implementation, lagging progress and responsibility shirking in work safety.

Not long ago, the Office of the Work Safety Commission of Liangshan Prefecture  exposed 65 problems found in recent supervision and inspection. At the name-and-shame meeting, the heads of named enterprises and regulatory departments made reflections and self-criticism, and county-level leaders in charge delivered a review speech. "Intensifying exposure efforts will promote smoother rectification and highlight the warning role," said an official at the Office of the Work Safety Commission of Liangshan Prefecture.

Sichuan Province has also established a responsibility supervision and implementation system of "two notices and one letter" (a regulatory talk notice, a notice to urge rectification within a time limit, and a reminder and urging letter) for work safety. Reminders and urging, rectification within a time limit and warning regulatory talks help fulfill the responsibilities and eliminate hidden dangers in a timely manner.

The implementation of work safety responsibilities depends not only on the supervision and exposure by superior units and regulatory departments, but also on self-inspection and self-correction within enterprises. Sichuan has continuously increased the rewards for whistleblowing, and widely mobilized enterprise employees and ordinary people to participate in the inspection of potential risks through activities such as "snapshot".

As of October 25, 3,698 key enterprises in Luzhou have comprehensively established an internal reward system for reporting potential safety hazards. Since the beginning of this year, 21,300 hidden dangers have been reported and controlled, with a reward amount of 1,301,600 yuan.

Zigong City has launched the "double rewards for reporting one hazard" system. For typical cases of reporting potential safety risks within enterprises, employees will be rewarded by both the enterprise and the government. Through policy innovation, government departments encourage enterprises and employees to proactively identify and report potential safety risks and promote the transformation of work safety into beforehand prevention.

Since the beginning of this year, Sichuan Province has vigorously promoted rewards for reporting potential safety risks within enterprises by improving systems such as whistleblowing bulletins, and whistleblower protection, actively promoted the use of the work safety whistleblowing platform and mini program of the Ministry of Emergency Management , and continuously stimulated the enthusiasm of the masses and employees to jointly promote work safety. As of the end of October, Sichuan had received 58,224 reports on work safety this year, granting a reward amount of 3,485,100 yuan.