Chongqing’s gas supply has exploded recently.
is an all-round success. On the one hand, its performance is off the charts, and on the other hand, the company’s customer complaints are off the charts.
Even the company's chairman, Che Dechen, was removed from his post (first he was removed from the posts of party committee secretary and general manager, and according to the procedures of a listed company, the board of directors was asked to recommend that he be removed from the post of chairman).
Mr. Che Dechen took over from Mr. Wang Songqiu, who was over 60 years old, as the chairman of the company in November 2023. Now he has hurriedly stepped down before his butt was warmed up.
Chongqing Gas was originally a local state-owned enterprise, but was later taken over by China Resources Gas. Currently, the largest and second largest shareholders are China Resources Gas and its investment companies.
Although China Resources Gas is a central enterprise, it has basically delegated power to the management of Chongqing Gas. The senior executives on the company's board of directors are all local Chongqing teams.
Xingkong Jun believes that if the management team of central enterprises were responsible, there is a high probability that this kind of thing would not happen. For central enterprises, the pursuit of profits is not the first priority, but the impact on society must also be considered.
For example, some car owners are worried about the shortage of private gas stations, but most car owners are more assured about two barrels of oil. In terms of quality supervision, the two barrels of oil are inspected more strictly than the Quality Supervision Bureau. Quality management is a red line, and each internal discovery is dealt with one by one.
Why are local state-owned enterprises relatively aggressive?
The reason is very simple. The company's third largest shareholder (actually the second largest shareholder) is Chongqing Urban Investment.
It can be seen that the local urban investment is really short of money.
As a person born in the 1970s, Mr. Che’s biggest characteristic compared with his predecessors is that he dares to do things.
1. Changes in accounting estimates that honest people cannot learn
In the second month after Mr. Che Dechen took office, Chongqing Gas issued the "Announcement of Chongqing Gas on Changes in Accounting Estimates."
What is an accounting estimate?
Many people think that accounting means one penny for each account, and you cannot make a penny of mistakes, otherwise it will be a false account.
However, accounting standards give accountants sufficient autonomy to act as they please within the standards.
Accounting estimation is a power of attorney with great autonomy.
For example, a company cannot deduct profits immediately after purchasing production equipment, because production equipment has its own life cycle. If it is all deducted in this period, one year's profits may not be enough to cover the cost of the equipment, so the profits cannot reflect the true value of the equipment. business situation. Accounting standards allow fixed assets to be spread over many years through amortization, a method called depreciation.
As for amortization over 8 years or 10 years, who has the final say?
accounting.
Even during the amortization process, if you feel that the impact on profits is too great, you can re-determine the amortization date.
This is called a change in accounting estimate.
Of course, accounting standards clearly stipulate that once an accounting estimate is determined, it cannot be changed at will.
But I didn’t say it can’t be changed, as long as it’s not arbitrary. How is
not casual?
The finance department submits an application, the board of directors votes to approve it, and then issues an announcement. This is not arbitrary. Don't say in the announcement of
that I want to increase profits. This is definitely illegal. According to the actual situation, the service life of the equipment has been extended than the previous expected life. In order to ensure the accuracy of accounting and to reflect the operating results more fairly... ...and so on.
Take an example:
Take another example:
Return to Chongqing Gas and see what the company says:
In order to reflect the company's financial status and operating results more objectively and fairly, and provide more reliable and accurate accounting information... .. ....
Look, this wording is so rigorous.
In order to show that it is indeed rigorous, the Ministry of Finance also brought out the "Chongqing Urban Pipeline Gas Distribution Price Management Measures" and the "Chongqing Urban Pipeline Gas Distribution Pricing Cost Supervision and Review Methods", saying that the measures stipulate that the depreciation period of the official website shall not be less than 30 years.
In fact, there is a "prudent principle" in accounting. It is normal for the depreciation period in accounting to be lower than the system regulations. If it conflicts with regulations, especially tax laws, tax adjustments can be made without adjusting the accounts.
is such a change, how much is it worth?
increased the profit for the year by 68.04 million. There is still a follow-up to the
matter.
Two days later, the company issued a supplementary announcement, changing the execution time to October 1, 2023 (the starting point of the Four Seasons Report), so that the amount changed from 68.04 million to 17 million.
In other words, the accounting did not falsify, nor did it inflate profits, but the actual effect was an increase in profits (it could be larger or smaller).
A friend asked whether the depreciation period can be modified in order to increase profits. Many "honest people" believe that it cannot be changed from a principle point of view. Xingkong Jun tells everyone from a practical point of view that of course it can be changed, but there must be a high-sounding reason.
is just this skill, AI will never learn it.
2. Performance Report
On March 4, 2024, the company released the 2023 performance report.
Although this newsletter is only a short page, it contains a huge amount of information.
Express shows that revenue in 2023 will be 10.247 billion yuan, an increase of 17.26% over the same period last year; net profit attributable to the parent company will be 493 million yuan, an increase of 22.79% over the same period last year.
Data source: Flush ifind, Chart: Poetry and Starry Sky
It was the surge in performance that aroused the indignation of netizens.
Starry Sky Jun has noticed that many analysts use this express report as a basis to analyze how outrageous the company's revenue in the fourth quarter of 2023 is, and use it as one of the "evidences" of the gas meter incident.
However, Xingkongjun checked the specific sales data and found that the increase in sales was not as outrageous as revenue:
During the reporting period, the company achieved gas sales of 3.496 billion cubic meters, a year-on-year increase of 24 million cubic meters, an increase of 0.69%, of which, ① The sales volume of financial gas for purchase and sale was 3.390 billion cubic meters, a year-on-year increase of 128 million cubic meters, or 3.94%; ② The pipeline transportation sales volume was 106 million cubic meters, a year-on-year decrease of 101 million cubic meters, or 48.80%. During the reporting period, the company completed financial settlement for 255,600 gas installation households, and the total number of customers served at the end of the year was 5.8464 million. The sales growth of
is basically consistent with the increase in the number of newly installed households. Considering that gas meters only record sales and do not reflect prices.
This shows that the main reason for the company's surge in performance is not sales volume, but high unit prices. Judging from the company's sales data for 2023, the gas meter does not show large deviations in large-scale statistical data.
Judging from the 2023 announcement by the Chongqing Development and Reform Commission, the price adjustment is mainly for industrial gas. The
investigation team released the investigation results on April 19. Xingkong Jun believes that based on the company’s financial report data, it is basically true.
The investigation team verified the situation one by one through on-site inspections, test testing, data comparisons, expert analysis and judgment, and typical case demonstrations. It has now been found that Chongqing Gas Group and other gas companies have overcharged gas fees reported by some citizens. question. The specific problems are as follows:
First, there are problems with wrong copying and illegal copying. For example, the investigation found that from January to April 2024, the Shapingba Branch of Chongqing Gas Group had 1,085 increases in gas consumption due to manual entry errors, involving a gas volume of 190,500 m³, and 106 increases in gas consumption due to no-stay estimation errors, involving 1.16 10,000 m³, long-term unsuccessful household meter reading resulted in a total of 234 meter readings charged at higher tiered prices, involving 279,100 m³.
The second problem is that the gas billing cycle is confusing. For example, the investigation found that a certain user in Longshan Street, Yubei District had a very long meter reading cycle, with no meter reading records for 7 months, 9 months, and up to 13 months, resulting in the user paying a one-time payment for one year in October 2023. gas expenses. Another example is that the gas branch has inconsistent billing cycles for users in the same community, and the time intervals are irregular and logical. The minimum billing cycle is 7 days and the maximum billing cycle is 83 days. For another example, Chongqing Gas Group requires all residential customers to complete meter readings one month before the annual price adjustment. However, during the implementation process, problems such as daily estimation and centralized liquidation before price adjustment occurred, resulting in a sharp increase in gas charges.
Third, there is the problem of insufficient implementation of the price policy. For example, the investigation found that on April 15, 2024, a certain public rental housing tenant in Shapingba had no gas meter reading record for 3 years and 3 months. When checking out, the gas consumption recorded by the party's one-time meter reading reached 943m³. According to Chongqing Gas Group A tiered pricing calculation was performed for one billing cycle, and the gas fee was overcharged by 237.55 yuan. This situation has been investigated.
Fourth, the table replacement work is disorganized.The billing and collection systems of gas companies are technically backward and unstable, causing data chaos. For example, a community in Jiangbei began to replace smart meters in July and August 2023, but Chongqing Gas Group staff only handed over user information to the gas company for entry into the system after replacing a batch of meters. There was a time lag in the meantime, and the amount of gas used during the period It will be superimposed to the next meter reading, resulting in higher than usual gas consumption and higher than usual charges.
Fifth, the work force is seriously insufficient. Some gas companies do not manage meter readers properly. For example, the gas branch manages 525,000 customers, of which 141,000 households need to read meters at home. There are only 18 meter readers, and each person is responsible for an average of 7,800. households, resulting in problems such as the staff's perfunctory and haphazard reading of meters.
Sixth, internal supervision and management of some gas companies are not in place. Failure to perform business review, supervision and management responsibilities in accordance with regulations, failure to detect problems such as fluctuations in meter reading cycles, insufficient meter reading at households, abnormal data, etc., and failure to correct errors in time.
Sometimes the truth is simple, but the truth is not easy to believe.
3. Change of accounting firm
The company's 2022 annual report audit firm is Tianjian, and it will be changed to KPMG in 2023.
In terms of level, KPMG, as one of the four largest companies in the world, has a higher level. But Tianjian was only on trial for one year. The main reason for the change of
is that in 2023, the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission and the Ministry of Finance issued the "Administrative Measures for the Selection and Employment of Accounting Firms by State-owned Enterprises and Listed Companies", which stipulates that institutions that perform the responsibilities of investors can directly select accounting firms and invest in them. of state-owned enterprises for auditing. The implicit meaning of this regulation
is that all branches of the same central enterprise should use the same firm.
China Resources Gas, which became the company's major shareholder and actual controller in 2023, is a listed company (Hong Kong stock), and the audit firm (called auditor in Hong Kong stock) changed to KPMG in 2023, so Chongqing Gas also changed to KPMG.
China Resources Gas’s firm in 2022 will be Ernst & Young, one of the Big Four. Why change it to KPMG? Because this measure also stipulates that in principle, a firm that provides services to central enterprises cannot exceed 8 years, and definitely cannot exceed 10 years. In 2023, Ernst & Young expired, so it was replaced by KPMG.
Tianjian said: Who can I talk to for explanation?
