regulating one side, making another
Currently, the National Target Program on Sustainable Poverty Reduction for the period 2021 - 2025 according to Decision No. 90/QD-TTg dated January 18, 2022 of the Prime Minister, on August 9, 2023, the People's Committee of Lang Chanh district, Thanh Hoa province issued a decision on approving the list of poor and near-poor households receiving housing support in the district. According to the decision, 747 households are supported with housing with a total cost of VND 21.480 billion.
Of which, the number of poor and near-poor households supported to build new houses is 327. The number of poor and near-poor households supported to repair their houses is 420. The total cost of supporting the construction of new houses is more than 13 billion VND; the cost of supporting the repair of houses is 8.4 billion VND. According to regulations, each household that builds a new house is supported with 40 million VND; the repair household is supported with 20 million VND from the central budget.
The decision of the People's Committee of Lang Chanh district assigned the district's Economic and Infrastructure Department to preside over and coordinate with the Department of Labor - Invalids and Social Affairs and related units to implement.
In Section 5, Part III of the Program, it is clearly stated: "The project beneficiaries do not include households that have received housing support under the National Target Program for Socio-Economic Development in Ethnic Minority and Mountainous Areas for the period 2021 - 2030 and other programs, projects and policies".
However, this district still provided support money to the wrong subjects for 202 households (new construction: 81 households, repair: 121 households). Number of houses that have been disbursed and funded: 194 households in 9 communes and towns (newly built: 77 households, repaired: 117 households) the total amount of money allocated to the wrong beneficiaries is 5.42 billion VND.
Communes that provide incorrect money to people not eligible for support are: Yen Khuong (50 households); Giao Thien (49 households); Tam Van (33 households); Lam Phu (22 households); Lang Chanh town; Tan Phuc; Yen Thang; Dong Luong...
Handling a series of officials
Speaking with Lao Dong, Mr. Hoang Van Thanh - Chairman of Lang Chanh District People's Committee - said that after receiving public opinions, the district's authorities have stepped in to verify and discovered the wrong payment to the above subjects.
According to the People's Committee of Lang Chanh district, the occurrence of spending incorrectly to the above subjects is due to some civil servants advising on incorrect understanding of beneficiaries, confusing beneficiaries; not doing a good job of guiding, inspecting, supervising, and reviewing the identification of beneficiaries.
In addition, there is an objective reason why Lang Chanh district has many beneficiaries of housing support policies under support programs such as Program 134/2004/QD-TTg dated July 20, 2004; Program 167/2008/QD-TTg dated December 12, 2008 of the Prime Minister and other project programs in the previous period.
According to the leader of Lang Chanh district, the preservation and archiving of records through the stages was not good, so during the consultation and synthesis process, some village heads could not fully remember the households that had been supported with housing. Households have been supported for a long time, when building materials, they are not durable, so their houses are damaged and degraded; because they are poor or near-poor households, they cannot afford to repair or rebuild.
The People's Committee of Thanh Hoa province has requested Lang Chanh district to recover all the amount of money that was not granted in accordance with regulations and pay it back to the budget. As of February 18, the communes and towns had recovered and paid to the State budget VND 1.04 billion due to improper disbursement and allocation. Currently, communes and towns are continuing to review, propagate and mobilize to recover the remaining amount due to disbursement and funding not in accordance with regulations.
According to Lao Dong's private information, because the money provided to households is a disadvantage, has been used for house building or spending, so it is difficult to recover, local officials have contributed money to overcome the situation.
On December 23, 2024, the People's Committee of Lang Chanh district held a review meeting to clarify the responsibilities of individuals and disciplinary action in the form of Reprimand against 10 individuals, including Mr. Ha Van Viet - Head of the Economic and Infrastructure Department, Mr. Lo Van Hon - expert of the People's Council and People's Committee Office of the district (former expert of the Economic and Infrastructure Department), consultant. Reviewing and drawing experience from 22 individuals, including Mr. Le Duc Tien - Vice Chairman of the District People's Committee - in charge of the field.
