People raise rice, officials benefit
The 2023 breeding and commercial aquaculture project (implemented in 2024) in Tan Thanh ward (old) has a total cost of 672 million VND (support budget of 370 million VND, the rest is counterpart capital). The scale of implementation is 44 children with 11 participating households. The project implementation period is from November 2023 to November 2025.
To implement the project, instead of giving people money to buy breeding animals and materials according to the approved project, the People's Committee of Tan Thanh Ward (old) took the lead. It is worth mentioning that the project was approved to choose an 8-month-old breeding cow, weighing from 1kg to 1.5kg, but the ward bought a pair of 2-month-old baby shoots to provide to the people.
The value of materials for making cages for farming is nearly 33 million VND, but Mr. Phan Minh Thuy - Chairman of the Commune Farmers' Association - asked the seller to record an invoice of 50.6 million VND. With a difference of VND17,786,000, Mr. Thuy paid for the cage construction of VND8,800,000 (VND400,000/cage in 2 compartments), the remaining VND8,986,000 he kept.
Tan Thanh Ward People's Committee did not pay for gasoline, stationery and print documents to the Project Management Board, but the accountant prepared payment documents for over 13 million VND. Mr. Phan Minh Thuy received this amount and then "forged" about 9 million VND to the Steering Committee members, keeping 4 million VND to cover the cost of inspecting the pond households.
It is worth mentioning that this farmers' Association officer did not buy vaccines to provide to people but "agreed orally" with the owner of the veterinary medicine store and switched to buying other drugs to provide to the people and also had no documents to prove it... Currently, out of 11 households participating in the project, 3 households with impetigo died (1 household died 2 children, 1 household died 3 children, 1 household died 4 children).
People's support money in the hands of officials
In Hoa Tan commune, Ca Mau city (old), the project was approved for 5 households to raise 10 fish tanks with a total amount of over 181 million VND. The implementation cost is 100 million VND (resolved), over 81 million VND is the counterpart capital of the people. For the project to support veterinary drugs and vaccines to raise stink bugs worth over 35 million VND, Hoa Tan commune did not buy them for the people but signed an economic contract with a business household to withdraw all this money. It is worth mentioning that the business household only gave Mr. Nguyen Van Hai - former treasurer of Hoa Tan Commune People's Committee, now a veterinary officer - 20 million VND, the remaining 15 million VND deducted from the cage purchase fee (3.000,000 VND/cage of 3 compartments).
According to the project, cages and barns are the people's counterpart, but seeing that people do not have money to buy cages, the commune builds them instead and then settles them into funds supported by the State. The inspectorate verified that 5 rice households had signed to receive food support and medicine fees of 4 million VND per person, but only 1 household received them, the rest were kept by the commune.
Also in Hoa Tan commune, with the cow raising project (3 households, each household has 2 children), Mr. Nguyen Van Hai, a commune veterinarian, did not buy foot-and-mouth disease vaccine and blood clotting vaccine. When completing payment procedures, Mr. Hai kept the remaining amount of money to buy the two vaccines mentioned above at VND 4,800,000. Currently, 3 households have 2 households asking to return the cows to the commune for sale to get the project return of 12 million VND.
In An Xuyen commune, the cow raising project (9 households, each household receives 2 cows) has 9 households only receiving cows without receiving any money for medicine or feed support. This amount (more than 65 million VND) was received and left there by Ms. Nguyen Thi Ngoc Thuy - Vice Chairman of the Commune People's Committee. Realizing that this amount was against regulations, Ms. Thuy deposited it into the deposit account of the People's Committee of An Xuyen commune, but it was recorded as a 20% recovery of the project.
Currently, 2 households have sold all their adopted cows; 1 household has one that is often sick and not developing. When detecting violations, the Inspectorate of Ca Mau province recommends that competent authorities organize a review of responsibilities for relevant organizations and individuals. At the same time, it is recommended that the Steering Committees of National Target Programs (NTPs) strengthen direction and guidance for units; especially the People's Committees of communes and wards to better implement the NTPs.
In the period of 2023-2024, the People's Committee of Ca Mau city (old) was allocated funding to implement the National Target Program on Sustainable Poverty Reduction from the Central career capital support with a total amount of over 23 billion VND.
