Who is responsible for the 43 "unofficial" medals and orders?
(Baonghean) -Although the decision to revoke 43 medals and orders that were issued illegally since 2003 has been made, 10 years have passed and the story of “real” and “fake” awards and orders has not “cooled down” in Nam Trung commune, Nam Dan district. People continue to send petitions, and the district People’s Committee, despite establishing inspection teams, has...
10 years, inspection conclusion still not processed
Representing 43 families whose medals were revoked, Mr. Tran Van Duoc (Hamlet 1, Nam Trung Commune) reported: In 1999, his parents and more than 40 other individuals were considered for the Resistance Medal according to Decision 139 dated April 19, 1999 of the President. But somehow, in 2003, the inspection team of the District People's Committee led by Mr. Tran Dinh Huong arbitrarily directed the revocation and took away 43 of our medals.
From 2000 to 2013, four inspection teams of Nam Dan district were established to address this issue. The first time was in 2000, when the Nam Dan District People's Committee received a petition from a citizen of Nam Trung commune accusing the commune of selling medals and medals at a price of 400,000 VND each. After the inspection, the team verified that this was true and the District People's Committee issued Official Dispatch No. 92/CV - UB, requesting the recall of 43 medals and medals to be submitted to the District People's Committee.
However, the above conclusion did not receive consensus from many households, so in July 2001, the People's Committee of Nam Dan district continued to establish an inspection team. Accordingly, the inspection results at the commune showed that 43 people were awarded according to Decree 28/CP without following the prescribed procedures. These people went through Mr. Nguyen Trong Hoe, Mr. Ho Hai Ly and Mr. Nguyen Huu Tap, Hamlet 7, Nam Trung commune to prepare the award documents and the above men collected fees from 43 people arbitrarily.
With many evidences of criminal violations, the inspection team at that time requested to transfer the file to the investigation agency but still did not do so. In January 2003, the district's interdisciplinary inspection team continued to be established. During this inspection, the team sent a dispatch to the Provincial People's Committee and the emulation department of the District People's Committee requesting to provide the files of the above 43 people. In the confirmation paper dated April 23, 2003 of Ms. Phung Thi Ngan Hoa, the main specialist in monitoring emulation and rewards of the province, confirmed: In the list of rewards according to Decision No. 139 dated April 19, 1999, all the numbers in the recognition certificate of Nam Trung commune citizens are not there, but the number of medals with the same decision belongs to Nghi Loc district citizens. Most recently, in October 2012, the district's inspection team also directly worked with the file storage department of the Provincial Emulation and Rewards Board. This once again confirms that there are no records kept at the Emulation Committee. In the entire list submitted and received medals and orders according to Decision 139, there are no names of 43 people from Nam Trung commune.
Mr. Nguyen Van Duong - Deputy Inspector of the district is checking the documents.
According to document No. 168/TĐKT – NVH dated November 29, 2012 of the Emulation and Reward Board, the consideration and awarding of awards to subjects with achievements in the resistance war, the dossier must be reviewed and approved by the competent authority in the following order: The individual writes a self-declaration with legal documents and procedures, which are reviewed and approved by the emulation council at the commune level, submitted to the emulation council at the district level for appraisal, then submitted to the provincial review council and submitted to the Central Government for approval and decision (all review levels must have records, the subjects to be rewarded must have a list in the golden book at all levels). If one of the above review procedures is missing, the reward decisions are invalid. Applying the above regulations, Mr. Nguyen Van Duong - Deputy Chief Inspector of the district affirmed: All 43 medals and orders of 43 individuals in Nam Trung commune, the consideration and awarding were not publicly reviewed and approved by the Commune Economic Council, not submitted to the District and Provincial Economic Council for appraisal, the records were not kept at the commune, district and province; the subjects were not listed in the golden books at all levels, therefore the above medals and orders are invalid.
Need to clarify the responsibilities of relevant organizations and individuals
Thus, according to the above conclusion, the decision of the Nam Dan District People's Committee to revoke 43 medals and orders is well-founded, because they are identified as "illegal" medals and orders. However, why are those medals and orders there, who issued them, and even if there are violations, the handling of law violators (individuals participating in the chain of collecting money from people to run for illegal medals and orders) and overcoming the consequences caused by the law violations have not been clearly determined. Even Mr. Nguyen Van Duong - Deputy Chief Inspector of the district also admitted: We cannot confirm whether the medals and orders that are in households are "real" or "fake". The correct answer must be the involvement of appraisal agencies.
This is also the reason why for more than 10 years, the people of Nam Trung commune continue to complain despite the conclusions of the inspection team many times. Coming to Mr. Tran Van Duoc's house (Hamlet 1), he showed the two "First Class Resistance Medals" and "Third Class" of his parents, Mr. Tran Van Vo and Mrs. Nguyen Thi Hai, and said: The commune has requested to take them back but I did not return them. They said these were fake medals but I did not believe them. Here are the medals and certificates, with the red seal and signature of President Tran Duc Luong intact, how could they be fake?
Recalling the process of preparing documents to receive awards and medals, Mrs. Tran Thi Lieu (his wife) said: I was the one who directly prepared the documents for my parents. Our documents at that time were signed by all members of the Commune Emulation and Reward Council, and then submitted to the commune policy officer. Medals and medals were also received from the commune headquarters along with dozens of other people. Mr. Hoang Van Mai (Hamlet 4) said: When she passed away, my mother, Mrs. Nguyen Thi Em (Hamlet 3), could not rest in peace. She wondered, her achievements were obvious, acknowledged by the people, acknowledged by the commune government, but the certificate of merit had arrived but the subsidy money was still not available. Meanwhile, we received unreasonable and irresponsible answers from the Nam Trung commune government.
Meeting Mr. Tran Xuan Dinh, former Party Secretary, Chairman of the People's Council of the commune, in charge of the commune's economic development at that time and now Chairman of the Front of Nam Trung commune, he said: I still remember, these 43 people were the last workers of Nam Trung commune, almost a sweep. Because it was the last batch, we did not set up a review board, but whoever submitted the documents, we signed because they were all people who contributed to the revolution. Later, when the above incident happened, I felt very sorry and also took responsibility for myself.
Also because of the long time and the careless record keeping (Nam Trung is an area that is often flooded), the members of the Economic Development Council of Nam Trung commune now do not remember whether or not they received the records of 43 individuals and do not know whether or not the commune awarded medals to the people. The households themselves are wondering: My parents are meritorious people. The records of commendation were made according to the instructions of the Commune Policy Board and were fully approved by the Economic Development Council of the commune. Now that it is said to be fake, it must be clearly determined who did wrong. If there is negativity, the violators must be strictly handled - Mr. Tran Van Duoc said.
Mr. Tran Van Duoc and his wife with their parents' "honors" and "medals".
Regarding the responsibility in the past, first of all, it belongs to the Nam Trung commune government for loosening its leadership and inspection in implementing Decree 28/CP on commendation and medals for the resistance war - Mr. Nguyen Van Duong - Deputy Chief Inspector of the district affirmed. On the part of Nam Dan district, the fault lies in not being decisive in the inspection and examination process, not assigning clear responsibilities, not assessing the inspection results, causing a serious incident and "signs of violating criminal law" to be forgotten for many years, causing questions and prolonged complaints. More regrettably, after the above incident was discovered, the Nam Dan district People's Committee repeatedly requested the Nam Trung commune People's Committee to establish a Communal Emulation and Reward Council to organize the appraisal of the records and criteria of the above 43 individuals to propose re-recognition of their achievements in the resistance war against the US, but they were still not interested. Meanwhile, many people died because they could not "wait".
Regarding the above incident, Mr. Tran Hung Thinh - Deputy Director of the Department of Home Affairs - Head of the Provincial Emulation and Reward Board said: This is a historical legacy, but no matter who did it, why it was wrong, we must resolve it completely at this time. In our opinion, if the 43 files above were not done according to the prescribed procedures, it can be confirmed that they are fake files. The district's responsibility is to explain to each household, encourage them to redo the files to ensure the correct procedures, and praise them for their achievements.
In view of the above incident, the relevant authorities need to intervene and clarify where the “unofficial” medals in Nam Trung commune came from. If there are any violations, the individuals involved need to be dealt with according to the law. At the same time, organize and guide households to re-do their records according to the correct procedures for re-recognition.
Article and photos: My Ha
