According to initial investigation, from 2023, the subjects kept a part of the donation money out of the books, then appropriated it and divided it among themselves to benefit.
Each coin placed by people in the donation box is a sending of faith to the gods and ancestors, and a desire to contribute to preserving relics, preserving cultural values and maintaining religious activities.
Therefore, when donation money is turned into personal gain, the damage does not stop at nearly 7 billion VND, and the trust of sincere contributors is also stolen.
More worryingly, this is not an isolated case. Previously, Lang Son Provincial Police also prosecuted defendants in the case of profiteering from merit money at Ky Cung Temple. Two consecutive cases show that the management of merit money in some places still has many loopholes.
Those loopholes are not due to lack of legal regulations, the problem lies in the implementation stage.
In many religious establishments, opening donation boxes, counting money, recording books and using revenue sources are still mainly done manually, lacking independent supervision, lack of publicity and transparency.
Management rights are concentrated on a group of people without control mechanisms, and greed easily has the opportunity to creep in.
The encouraging thing is that law enforcement agencies have drastically intervened, investigated, prosecuted and strictly handled violations. But more importantly, it is necessary to prevent them from the root.
Religious establishments need to build stricter donation money management procedures, from sealing donation boxes, periodic counting, making records, fully accounting to publicly collecting and spending.
The inventory needs the participation of many components and is supervised by management agencies and the community.
It is necessary to promote the application of technology in management, encourage non-cash donation forms to reduce risks and increase transparency.
Transparency is the way to protect the solemnity of relics and strengthen the belief of philanthropists who contribute donations.
People not only hope that violating individuals will be strictly handled and the lost assets will be thoroughly recovered, but also expect that the "loopholes" in management will be sealed.
Because, merit money can be counted, can be recovered, but once trust is stolen, it will be very difficult to regain.
It is unacceptable for those who are assigned to preserve cultural and religious heritage to turn donation boxes into safes of their own homes.
