Inspection team discovered that the commune used money to support house building for meritorious people to 'pay off debt'.

On August 11, a leader of Tuong Duong district said that the district is checking the violations that occurred in Luu Kien commune to handle the responsibility of each individual and collective according to regulations. Meanwhile, the amount of hundreds of millions of dong that were "lost" is also being submitted to the district by the commune leaders.

According to the reporter's investigation, implementing the housing support policy for meritorious people according to Decision 22 of the Prime Minister, 93 households in Luu Kien commune were approved, equivalent to a support budget of 2,380,000,000 VND. Of which, 26 households building new houses were supported with 40 million VND each. The remaining 67 households repairing their houses were supported with 20 million VND each.

Chairman of the People's Committee of Luu Kien commune (right) said that after withdrawing the money, the commune did not put it into the fund but used it to pay off debt.

The People's Committee of Luu Kien commune then withdrew money from the State Treasury of Tuong Duong district three times with a total amount of 2.4 billion VND (20 million VND more than the approved documents). But by June 2019, when the inspection team of Tuong Duong district came to work, the commune had only disbursed 2.05 billion VND and had a surplus of 90 million VND in the commune's fund. The remaining 260 million VND was "lost" and it was unknown where.

Speaking to Nghe An Newspaper reporter, Mr. Vi Van Bang - Chairman of Luu Kien Commune People's Committee said that this amount of 260 million VND is to pay for the remaining 50% of 13 households that have repaired their houses but the commune has not done it yet. In addition, there are 6 other households that have been approved but have not done it yet and the difference in money of one household transferred from new construction to repair.

“Because the commune had too much debt left over from the previous term, we used that money to pay off the debt. Now we have returned it all to the district Department of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs after the inspection team requested it,” Mr. Bang said.

However, the Chairman of the People's Committee of this commune could not provide payment invoices or disclose specific debts that the commune had paid.