Lottery agents must take the lead in combating lottery fraud.

On the afternoon of January 17, the National Assembly's Supervisory Delegation had a working session with Nghe An Lottery One Member Co., Ltd. on the implementation of legal policies on management and use of state capital and assets at enterprises.

Mr. Nguyen Thanh Hien - Deputy Head of the Provincial National Assembly Delegation spoke at the meeting. Photo: Thanh Le

Nghe An Lottery Company Limited is a 100% state-owned enterprise, owned by the Provincial People's Committee with the main task of operating lottery business, in addition to property auction services and motel services.

Regarding the implementation of policies and laws on management and use of state capital and assets, Mr. Nguyen Phan Tinh - Director of the company said: Regarding scale and capital structure, the enterprise is ranked 3rd, with current operating capital of 9.6 billion VND, of which the State budget allocated over the periods is 4.3 billion VND, the company itself supplemented 5.3 billion VND. The company has implemented solutions to preserve and develop capital.

Lottery activities have contributed to the economic restructuring, creating regular jobs for 750 workers, and lottery revenue has been invested in medical and educational projects, improving and enhancing people's lives. At the same time, lottery activities meet the healthy entertainment needs of a part of the population, contributing to limiting social evils and illegal lottery and gambling activities.

Mr. Nguyen Phan Tinh - Director of Nghe An Lottery One Member Co., Ltd. reported on the implementation of policies and laws on state enterprise asset management. Photo: Thanh Le

According to Mr. Tinh, in recent years, Nghe An lottery has made comprehensive progress, with a relatively good growth rate. However, lottery activities in the province still have many limitations, such as low ticket sales, leading to low revenue and profits; small-scale businesses with little capital; budget payments based on occurrence, and no rapid growth.

Furthermore, although according to Government regulations, lottery tickets of the Northern provinces are issued and consumed within the administrative boundaries of each province and centrally-run city, businesses do not need to apply for permission. However, during the operation, some districts, communes and wards prohibit the development of lottery activities.

Mr. Nguyen Van Duong requested Nghe An Lottery Company to review and manage agents to avoid the situation where the company's agents operate lottery operations under false pretenses. Photo: Thanh Le

“The company requests that the police at all levels strengthen the work of preventing, combating and eliminating illegal gambling and lottery. It is necessary to eliminate 300 people sitting openly recording lottery numbers in Vinh City. It is recommended that the Provincial People's Committee consider adjusting the budget estimate from the lottery in 2018. The assigned 20 billion VND is too high, the unit proposed 18.5 billion VND" - Mr. Tinh suggested.

Mr. Nguyen Van Duong - Deputy Head of the Corporate Finance Department, Department of Finance said: As a specialized business unit, the difficulty of the unit is that the demand and taste of the people are still limited. Although the company actively expands its agents to increase sales.

“In order to increase revenue, in addition to expanding the area, a very important factor is to reduce the phenomenon of lottery recording. To do that, we recommend that all levels and sectors take part, and first of all, the company's agents must take the lead in preventing lottery recording. The company needs to review the management of agents to avoid the unit's agents taking advantage of disguised lottery activities to record lottery. At the same time, the company reviews its activities in the past to improve the unit's operational efficiency," said Mr. Duong.

Responding to the content of the monitoring delegation's concerns, Mr. Nguyen Phan Tinh admitted that some lottery ticket agents have the phenomenon of disguising lottery tickets. For agents who violate the law, the company will terminate the contract. According to Mr. Tinh, the phenomenon of free lottery tickets cannot be completely prevented because the sanctions when these subjects are caught are mainly administrative penalties, because of the profit and income, the subjects continue to repeat the phenomenon.

Concluding the meeting, Deputy Head of the Provincial National Assembly Delegation Nguyen Thanh Hien acknowledged and highly appreciated the company's activities in preserving and developing State capital, creating jobs, taking care of and ensuring the rights of workers and performing well in social security work.

Regarding the company's recommendations, the Provincial Delegation of National Assembly Deputies received, proposed, and recommended to localities, the Provincial People's Committee, and functional agencies to remove difficulties and obstacles, creating favorable conditions for the unit to operate and develop./.