'Declaring death' of biological mother, commune People's Council vice chairman disciplined

Being discovered to have "declared" his biological mother dead to take advantage of the subsidy money, the Vice Chairman of the People's Council of a commune in Ha Tinh expressed his regret for causing his mother to worry.

On October 24, the Inspection Committee of Thach Ha District Party Committee (Ha Tinh) announced that it had just disciplined Mr. Nguyen The He (Vice Chairman of the People's Council of Thach Dien Commune) by removing him from all Party positions for abusing his position and power, falsifying his biological mother's age to take advantage of elderly allowances.

According to the authorities, in 2011, the commune had a campaign to prepare documents for the elderly over 80 years old to receive benefits. Mr. He's biological mother is 72 years old, but as a commune team leader and policy officer, he changed his mother's birth year in the household registration from 1939 to 1930, declaring her age as 81.

Thach Dien commune headquarters, where Mr. He is working. Photo: D.H

After completing the application, Mr. He's mother received social protection benefits from January 2011 to March 2017, with an amount of 270,000 VND/month. Mr. He personally took his mother's book to receive the money on her behalf during this time. The incident was discovered by a post office employee when the social protection benefits were transferred to the post office for payment in 2017.

Fearing that he would be charged with over 14 million VND in subsidies he had received over the past 6 years, Mr. He, who was then Vice Chairman of the Commune People's Council, directed the accountant to issue a death certificate for his mother and requested that the protection allowance be stopped from April 2017. The People's Committee of Thach Ha district then issued a decision to collect over 14 million VND in subsidies.

Mr. He stated that in 2011, when he applied for the subsidy, his mother gave him an ID card stating his birth year was 1930 (81 years old) and a citizen identification card stating his birth year was 1939 (72 years old). He then followed the documents on the ID card and went to the police station in Thach Ha district to re-issue the identity card, but it was not approved because the year of birth was too different.

Regarding the "death sentence" of his mother, Vice Chairman of the People's Council of Thach Dien explained that when the incident broke out, he knew he was wrong so he told the accountant to cut off his benefits and return the money to the state. But to cut off his benefits, he had to write "dead". "A month is only 180,000 VND, not much, but to make my mother upset, I am very regretful", Mr. He said.

Regarding the incident, the Thach Ha District Party Committee disciplined Mr. Hoang Huu Thanh (Vice Chairman of the Commune People's Committee) for stamping a paper on the notice of reduction so that Mr. He could "declare" his biological mother's death. In addition, the Standing Committee of the Thach Dien Commune Party Committee was also reprimanded for lax leadership. Some officials who allowed Mr. He to falsify documents in 2011 were also disciplined.

After the Party organization's discipline, the competent authority will discipline Mr. He and related individuals.

According to VNE