Irregularities surrounding the case of paying pension to the wrong person in Quynh Luu

Wrong beneficiaries receive pension

For over a month now, the family of Mrs. Tran Thi Thang (84 years old, Thuan Yen village, Quynh Ngoc commune, Quynh Luu) has been anxious because they do not know where to get the money to pay back the State after the local government said that Mrs. Thang was in the case of receiving her husband's pension incorrectly. Therefore, she was forced to take responsibility for returning the amount of money she had received incorrectly after her husband passed away from October 2015 until now.

“I have never known about pension money. I have never received any money, but now I have to pay,” said Ms. Thang.

In a petition sent to Nghe An Newspaper, Ms. Thang's son, Mr. Ngo Van Hai (45 years old), said that his father, a retired teacher, passed away in September 2015. "After my father passed away, the family received the funeral allowance. As for the monthly pension, no one in our family knew anything about it," Mr. Hai said, adding that on September 20, 2024, the family unexpectedly received a notice to go to the People's Committee of Quynh Ngoc commune to complete the procedures to receive the monthly pension via ATM card. After asking the commune policy officer to check the file, Mr. Hai learned that there was a list of his father's pension.

In the payment list, the person who receives the monthly pension is Ms. Tran Thi Thang. However, in the receipt section, some months she signs as “Thang”, but other months she signs as “Hoa”. The total pension received since 2015 is nearly 80 million VND.

According to Mr. Hai, at this time his family was surprised and asked the commune officials to clarify the matter but received an appointment to work on another occasion. In the afternoon of the same day, September 30, 2024, Mr. Trinh Ngoc Hoa - a postal officer of Quynh Ngoc commune came to Ms. Thang's house.

In the video recorded by the family's surveillance camera, Mr. Hoa went to Mrs. Thang's bed, gave her the pension book and told her: "You have the book now, if anyone asks, tell them to receive it in full every month, remember... Please help me or I will be fired."

Mr. Ngo Van Hai said that in addition to the pension book, Mr. Hoa also gave his mother 1.5 million VND. After Mr. Hai filed a complaint, on October 22, 2024, the People's Committee of Quynh Ngoc Commune, the leaders of the Social Insurance Agency of Quynh Luu District and the leaders of the Quynh Luu District Post Office had a meeting with the family of Ms. Thang and Mr. Trinh Ngoc Hoa.

In the minutes of the meeting, Mr. Ho Ngoc Hoang - Chairman of the People's Committee of Quynh Ngoc commune concluded that Ms. Thang's enjoyment of her husband's pension was not in accordance with regulations, because at the time of her husband's death, Ms. Thang was entitled topension The local salary is higher than the basic salary. Therefore, Ms. Thang must be responsible for returning the amount of money she has received in error in the monthly pension regime from October 2015 until now, when there is a decision from the Nghe An Provincial Social Insurance.

In addition, in this record, the Chairman of the People's Committee of Quynh Ngoc commune also assigned responsibility to Mr. Hoa and Ms. Thang to "stabilize the situation, not to talk to outsiders and disrupt order in the area. If anyone is wrong, that person will be fully responsible before the law". Mr. Hoang also requested in the record that Mr. Ngo Van Hai must submit a request to withdraw the request that he sent to the authorities when he has finished working.

Officials said they paid, people said they didn't receive it yet.

Speaking with Nghe An Newspaper reporter, Mr. Trinh Ngoc Hoa - a postman of Quynh Ngoc commune admitted that he was the one who directly received the pension from Ms. Thang's husband since his death until now.

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“At that time, after her husband passed away, Mrs. Thang and her son came to ask about the pension regime. So I went to the Quynh Luu District Social Insurance to ask, and the agency gave me the declaration form to do. After that, Mrs. Thang asked me to receive the money for her, with a power of attorney. Since then, every month she has come to my house to receive the money, and my wife is the one who gives the money to Mrs. Thang in full. I do not receive any percentage. From May 2024 until now, I have not seen her come to receive it anymore."

Mr. Trinh Ngoc Hoa - postman of Quynh Ngoc commune

Mr. Hoa said that he only broke the rules by forging Ms. Thang's signature when signing to receive the money. The pension documents he made for Ms. Thang were all confirmed by the local authorities.

However, Ms. Thang and her family members denied this. “We did not ask Mr. Hoa to prepare any documents. There is no way that my mother receives monthly pension from Mr. Hoa,” said Mr. Ngo Van Hai.

In addition, according to the reporter's investigation, these authorization papers were all forged by Mr. Hoa himself with Ms. Thang's signature. There were many errors in many authorization papers, but for some reason, the leader of Quynh Ngoc Commune People's Committee still stamped them for confirmation.

Ms. Nguyen Hai Anh - Director of Quynh Luu Post Office confirmed that Mr. Trinh Ngoc Hoa is an employee of the unit, a postal officer in charge of Quynh Ngoc commune.

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“I also spoke directly with Mr. Hoa and asked him to explain. Mr. Hoa admitted to making the documents for Ms. Tran Thi Thang and then signing to receive the money every month. But Mr. Hoa said that after receiving the money, he divided it all among Ms. Thang. It is not clear how much was divided, and there is no receipt to prove that Mr. Hoa paid this amount to Ms. Thang. But whether Mr. Hoa paid the monthly allowance to Ms. Thang or not, the fact that he arbitrarily made a power of attorney and received the money without Ms. Thang's signature is a violation. Mr. Hoa must be responsible for handing over the money he received when there is a decision to recover it to Ms. Thang so that Ms. Thang can pay it back to the State.”

Ms. Nguyen Hai Anh - Director of Quynh Luu Post Office

As the unit responsible for paying the subsidy, Ms. Hai Anh said that because Mr. Hoa presented the authorization letter, the treasurer made the payment. “Regarding the agency issue, we made a mistake in not checking the signatures. Some months, Mr. Hoa signed the recipient's name as "Hoa", other months he signed as "Thang". We will take responsibility for any mistakes,” added the Director of the Quynh Luu Post Office.

Mr. Ho Ngoc Hoang - Chairman of the People's Committee of Quynh Ngoc Commune said that he was the one who signed and confirmed the false documents to receive the pension benefits of Ms. Tran Thi Thang in 2015. At that time, Mr. Hoang was the Vice Chairman of the People's Committee of the Commune. "The documents were submitted in a pile, including pension and burial money. I also signed without paying attention. However, we have no interest in this case," Mr. Hoang affirmed./.