For about 2 weeks now, many localities in Dak Lak province have issued notices to collect incorrect payments of preferential allowances for teachers.
For example, the People's Committee of Krong Pac district has issued a document agreeing to the proposal to withdraw preferential allowance payments for teachers proposed by the district's Finance and Planning Department.
The People's Committee of Krong Pac district agreed to recover the difference in the amount of preferential allowances paid to teachers exceeding the prescribed level according to Decision No. 244/2005/QD-TTg (Decision 244).
The period of incorrect payment to be recovered is from the effective date of Decision No. 861/QD-TTg dated June 4, 2021 of the Prime Minister (decision approving the list of communes in Region III, Region II, Region I in ethnic minority and mountainous areas for the period 2021 - 2025) to August 2024.
When the above Decision 861 comes into effect, Krong Pac district has 5 communes and towns including: Hoa An, Ea Kly, Ea Kuang, Hoa Tien and Phuoc An town that have changed areas (no longer in the priority and subsidy categories).
Thus, preschool and primary school teachers will receive a preferential allowance of 35% instead of 50% as before. Secondary school teachers will receive a rate of 30% instead of 35%.
However, Krong Pac district continues to use the old area to pay preferential allowances, leading to overpayments. After 3 years of incorrect payments, recently, the Finance and Planning Department of Krong Pac district sent a document to schools requesting a withdrawal.
Similarly, through a planned inspection, the Dak Lak Provincial Inspectorate discovered that Buon Ho town paid preferential allowances to teachers from June 2021 to July 2024, not in accordance with the instructions in the Joint Circular of the Inter-Ministry guiding the implementation of Decision No. 244 of the Prime Minister.
Regarding this matter, the Central agencies have instructed that from May 2021 onwards, Dak Lak province has 184 communes, wards and towns in ethnic minority and mountainous areas.
From June 4, 2021 onwards, according to Decision No. 861, period 2021-2025, Dak Lak province has 130/184 communes in ethnic minority and mountainous areas (reduced by 54 communes). Particularly, Buon Ho town has 8/12 communes in ethnic minority and mountainous areas (reduced by 4 communes).
However, in reality, from June 2021 to December 31, 2023, the People's Committee of Buon Ho town still paid preferential allowances at the level in mountainous areas to all teachers teaching at schools located in the area, which is not in accordance with regulations. The incorrect payment caused a loss of more than 5.6 billion VND to the State budget.
According to the Dak Lak Provincial Inspectorate, in addition to Buon Ho town, through surveys at some district-level units, the payment of allowances at the preferential level for mountainous areas to all teachers teaching at schools is not in accordance with regulations.
From there, the Dak Lak Provincial Inspectorate reported and requested the Chairman of the Dak Lak Provincial People's Committee to agree to recover the amount of money that had been spent incorrectly in the localities to submit to the State budget.
Currently, many localities in Dak Lak province have developed plans to recover the wrongly spent money. In M'Drak district, 4 communes and towns must collect preferential allowances. In Ea Kar district, the Finance and Planning Department has just requested schools in 4 communes and towns to estimate the recovery.
A primary school teacher in Krong Pac district said that currently, teachers in the school are in an uproar over the collection of preferential allowances. This teacher said: "We find it difficult to understand why the situation of incorrect payment occurred for such a long time before it was discovered.
After calculating, I will be charged nearly 50 million VND. Having to pay back this amount, we feel very worried because we have used it all to take care of our family. Now to pay back this large amount of money, it will be very difficult for us."
