Don't take out loans to build new rural areas because of commitments

(Baonghean)- Nghe An Newspaper received a petition from Mr. Pham Van Thang (Hamlet 5, Hung Son Commune, Anh Son District), reflecting on the fact that his family signed a contract with the hamlet to supply sand and gravel for rural road construction, but has not yet received the full amount of money as committed. After verification, it was found that the above incident is true and this is a lesson for communes in the current work of building New Rural Areas.

In the petition sent to Nghe An Newspaper, Mr. Pham Van Thang stated: In 2013 and 2014, his family signed a contract with the Executive Committee of Hamlet 5 and Hamlet 7 to supply sand and gravel to build roads under the new rural construction program. Specifically, for Hamlet 5, his family signed a contract twice, the first time supplying 250m3, the second time supplying 1,039m3. During the construction process, Hamlet 5 generated an additional 31.32m3 of sand and gravel. The total amount of sand and gravel that his family sold to Hamlet 5 was 1,397.5m3. As for Hamlet 7, his family signed a contract to supply 451m3 of sand and gravel. Thus, the total amount of sand and gravel that Mr. Thang's family sold to the two hamlets was 1,848.5m3. With the agreed price of 110,000 VND/m3, the amount Mr. Thang’s family must pay is 144 million VND. “My family has fulfilled the commitment, but the road has been completed and used for more than 2 years, but I still have not been paid the full amount according to the contract. Currently, the commune and the hamlet owe my family nearly 73 million VND,” Mr. Thang said.

The neighborhood's sales contract with Mr. Thang's family.

Through the books and documents that are being kept by the family, the information Mr. Thang provided is quite clear. Accordingly, the contracts for the purchase and sale of sand and gravel all have the full signatures of the family as well as the hamlet chief and hamlet secretary at that time. According to the contract, the payment period is divided into 2 stages. Specifically, the hamlet is responsible for paying 50% after the family has fully handed over the sand and gravel; the remaining 50% will be paid at the end of 2014. If the buyer receives the money in advance, he must pay the family the remaining amount at that time. But in reality, up to this point, the buyer's responsibility has not been fully implemented. Responding to this issue, Mr. Dau Thanh Nghia, Hamlet Chief of Hamlet 5 admitted: The part contributed by the people (27.5 million VND) has been fully paid by the hamlet to Mr. Thang's family. The additional amount of more than 5 million VND incurred during the road construction process was due to not having been collected from the people; The remaining 31.5 million VND that the village owes Mr. Thang is because the commune has not transferred the money to the village, so the village does not have money to pay his family.

It is known that in 2013, in addition to the cement supported by the Provincial People's Committee, the People's Committee of Hung Son commune agreed to allocate a budget to support the villages with 96,000 VND/m3 of concrete to build rural roads. The remaining amount was contributed by the people at the rate of 40,000 VND/m3 of concrete and working days. The commune assigned the hamlets to mobilize people to contribute and sign contracts with households and individuals to supply sand and gravel. In 2013 and 2014, the hamlets mobilized people and signed contracts with 6 families selling sand and gravel to build nearly 20 km of roads.

According to the initial mechanism, the commune's budget to support the hamlets was more than 1.2 billion VND. According to regulations, by the end of 2014, the commune must disburse the above amount to the hamlets so that the hamlets can pay the families supplying sand and gravel. But by the end of 2014, the commune had only advanced the hamlets 200 million VND. Regarding this issue, Mr. Hoang Dinh My, Chairman of the People's Committee of Hung Son commune, admitted: Not only does the commune owe Mr. Thang's family, it also owes 5 other families more than 1 billion VND. The reason is that to complete the 19 new rural criteria, the construction investment items are very large, but because the State's funding support is small, while the revenue from the auction of residential land and the allocation of forest land is not yet available, the commune must owe money to households selling sand and gravel. When there is a source, the commune will promptly disburse to pay the families and not invest in other items.

The rural road in hamlet 5, Hung Son commune has been completed and put into use for more than a year, but the commune still owes money to buy sand and gravel.

Mr. My said that in 2015 and 2016, it was very difficult to pay off the debt. Currently, the commune is speeding up the planning of land subdivision to prepare documents for land auctions. At the same time, it is waiting for instructions from all levels to proceed with zoning and allocating forest land in the Tay Hoa area. However, the revenue is still within the estimate, not yet able to pay in full. Therefore, the commune will continue to extend the debt and needs the sharing of the villages, especially individuals and households selling sand and gravel. When we raised the issue: We agree that the commune is facing difficulties, but many households selling sand and gravel are having to borrow from banks, borrowing at high interest rates to invest in buying sand and gravel, how will the commune solve this problem?, Mr. My said: In April 2015, the commune notified the villages and asked the villages to directly negotiate with households supplying sand and gravel to extend the contract for another year. However, in reality, the hamlets have not completed the procedures to extend the contract with households selling sand and gravel.

Regarding the additional costs of purchasing sand and gravel during the road construction process in Hamlet 5, Mr. Pham Van Tung (former Hamlet Chief of Hamlet 5) said: When building the road, the Party Secretary of the commune verbally agreed to let Hamlet 5 pour more connecting sections from the gate of the house to the road, so the amount of sand and gravel increased. However, after acceptance and handover to the new term Hamlet Executive Committee, the agreement was not reached. The people also refused to contribute more to pay for Mr. Thang's family. Contrary to the information provided by Mr. Tung, Mr. Dau Thanh Nghia, Hamlet Chief of Hamlet 5, said that because when handing over the books, Mr. Tung did not fully disclose the information to the people, the people did not agree to contribute the additional costs. “The total volume of sand and gravel generated was 31.32m3, costing more than 3 million VND. In total, each household had to pay an additional 24,000 VND. People said that the amount was not large, but they asked Mr. Tung to publicly announce it in the meeting so that people would know. Although the village had invited Mr. Tung to organize the village meeting many times, he did not come,” said Mr. Nghia.

Mr. Thang said that the commune is facing difficulties so they do not have money to pay, the family sympathizes, but the family is also really struggling when they have to borrow money at high interest rates from outside to pay for the bank loan to invest in buying sand and gravel. Up to now, the family's total interest has reached more than 30 million VND and if they cannot pay on time, it will continue to increase. We want to resolve the issue in a responsible manner and do not want to sue in court. That is a solution that no one wants. If the commune is responsible, they will extend the contract and commit to paying the interest, then the family will not have to write a petition to the authorities like this, Mr. Thang said.

It can be seen that, at a time when the commune has not yet arranged funding, Mr. Thang's solution is very appropriate and needs to be implemented by the Hung Son commune government. The request for families to share is only on the emotional and awareness side with the community, but according to regulations, the commune's responsibility is to pay debts on time, ensuring legitimate rights for citizens. Regarding the problem arising in hamlet 5, the commune needs to continue to request Mr. Pham Van Tung to strictly comply with the handover, fully publicize books and data to the people to create consensus. If any individual does not comply, there must be measures to handle it according to regulations, to avoid the incident from prolonging, causing instability in people's lives and affecting the management and leadership of the commune government.

The incident in Hung Son commune is a profound lesson for communes in the province that are currently in the process of building new rural areas. Investing in infrastructure is legitimate to contribute to changing the face of the countryside, creating conditions for people to develop and increase income. However, we should not chase after achievements, because of commitments, regardless of borrowing to complete the criteria when there is no source of funds to pay. From there, many complicated and difficult-to-solve consequences will arise, similar to those in Hung Son.

Pham Bang