Clarifying responsibility in the case of paying pension to the wrong recipient in Quynh Luu district

Wrongful payment recovered

On January 8, a leader of the People's Committee of Binh Son Commune (Quynh Luu) said that the locality had just had a meeting with the Working Group of the Post Office and Social Insurance sectors regarding the payment of death benefits to the wrong beneficiaries. This move took place more than 1 month after Nghe An Newspaper published an article reflecting on“Irregularities surrounding the case of paying pension to the wrong person in Quynh Luu”,Posted on November 27.

The meeting to clarify the responsibilities of the parties also included relevant officials and representatives of the family of Mrs. Tran Thi Thang (84 years old, residing in Quynh Ngoc commune, now merged into Binh Son commune).

Mrs. Thang's husband, a retired teacher, passed away in September 2015. Since then, the family said they had no knowledge of the monthly pension scheme. However, on September 20, 2024, Mrs. Thang's son, Mr. Ngo Van Hai, unexpectedly received a notice to go to the People's Committee of Quynh Ngoc commune to complete the procedure to receive the monthly pension via ATM card.

After asking the commune policy officer to check the file, Mr. Hai found out that there was a list of his father's pension. However, the person who received the money for the past 9 years was Mr. Trinh Ngoc Hoa - a postal officer, Quynh Luu District Post Office. In the money receiving file, Mr. Hoa signed his name "Thang" many times, but sometimes signed with his own name. The total amount of money Mr. Hoa received for the past 9 years was more than 78.7 million VND.

At a recent meeting, Mr. Ho Ngoc Hoang - Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee of Binh Son commune said that at the time of preparing the dossier for receiving the pension regime for this case in 2015, he was the Vice Chairman of the People's Committee of Quynh Ngoc commune, and was the person who directly confirmed the family declaration. "When working with the authorities, I also admitted my mistake about this mistake. Previously, the confirmation of the authorization letter was only signed but not fully checked," Mr. Hoang admitted and said that he had previously asked Mr. Hai to withdraw the complaint sent to the authorities and asked Mr. Hoa to apologize to the family.

“At this meeting, I hope the family will sympathize with the local government’s mistakes. Human feelings should be considered. In my opinion, Mr. Hai and his family should forgive Mr. Hoa. The responsibility for how to handle Mr. Hoa belongs to the direct management agency, the Post Office. I personally publicly apologize to Ms. Tran Thi Thang and her family, and hope that at this meeting, all problems will be resolved,” Mr. Hoang stated.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Hai Anh - Director of Quynh Luu Post Office said that she had worked with the staff and Mr. Hoa had also admitted his mistake and taken full responsibility for returning the money he had received over the past 9 years to the Social Insurance. Therefore, Ms. Thang and her family were not asked to pay the amount that had to be recovered. Currently, Mr. Hoa has paid more than 78.7 million VND. "Quynh Luu District Post Office admitted its mistakes in payment management. Disciplinary action was taken against Mr. Hoa in front of the entire agency. Quynh Luu Post Office publicly apologized to Ms. Tran Thi Thang and her family for the mistake in paying monthly pension benefits, hoping that Mr. Hai and his family would sympathize and withdraw the application," Ms. Hai Anh said at the meeting.

Similarly, Mr. Trinh Ngoc Hoa said that he himself admitted his mistake and went to Mr. Hai's family to apologize, hoping to withdraw the complaint. "My wife had said some bad things to Mr. Hai's family, I also apologized but Mr. Hai did not accept. At today's meeting, I hope Mr. Hai will reconsider. Our family has fully remedied the consequences. I have also returned all that money to the Social Security agency, I promise that the family will not be responsible for returning this money," Mr. Hoa explained.

Police involved

Talking to reporters, Mr. Ho Ngoc Hoang - now Deputy Secretary of the Binh Son Commune Party Committee said that after Nghe An Newspaper reported, Quynh Luu District Police also got involved, inviting relevant people to work. "The police also came down to work with me. I also admitted my mistake in signing the confirmation without carefully reviewing the documents. However, I have no personal gain in this case. It was just a mistake," Mr. Hoang said.

In the application form for monthly pension, signed by Mr. Ho Ngoc Hoang on October 1, 2015, it is stated that Ms. Thang "works in agriculture and has a monthly income of 300,000 VND". Meanwhile, Ms. Thang used to work as a commune nurse and at the time of her husband's death was receiving a commune pension of 1.285 million VND/month. At that time, the regional minimum wage was 1.150 million VND/month. With a pension higher than that minimum wage, according to regulations, Ms. Thang is not entitled to receive her husband's pension.

However, Mr. Trinh Ngoc Hoa still made mistakes in the documents to submit to the Commune People's Committee and then had Mr. Ho Ngoc Hoang sign and confirm. In addition, Mr. Hoa later forged the signature in the authorization paper that Ms. Thang authorized him to receive the pension. These authorization papers were very roughly made, with many errors, but were still signed and confirmed by the local authorities for Mr. Hoa to receive the pension.

Previously, as Nghe An Newspaper reported, Mrs. Tran Thi Thang's family has been worried for many months now, because they do not know where to get the money to pay back the State after the local government said that she was in the wrong case of receiving her husband's death benefits. Therefore, she was forced to take responsibility for returning the amount of money she had received incorrectly after her husband's death from October 2015 until now. Meanwhile, she affirmed that she did not know about this policy.

After her son filed a complaint, in the afternoon of the same day, Mr. Trinh Ngoc Hoa went to Mrs. Thang's bed, gave her the pension book and instructed: "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." In addition to the pension book, Mr. Hoa also gave her 1.5 million VND. "Only now did we see this pension book," said Mr. Ngo Van Hai.

The local government and relevant agencies then also had a meeting with the family of Mrs. Thang and Mr. Trinh Ngoc Hoa. However, in the minutes of the meeting, Mr. Ho Ngoc Hoang - who was then Chairman of the People's Committee of Quynh Ngoc Commune - concluded that Mrs. Thang's enjoyment of her husband's pension was not in accordance with regulations, because at the time of her husband's death, Mrs. Thang received a local pension higher than the basic salary. Therefore, Mrs. Thang must be responsible for returning the amount of money she had received in error in the monthly pension from October 2015 to present, when there was a decision from the Social Insurance of Nghe An province. In addition, also in this minute, Mr. Hoang also assigned responsibility to Mr. Hoa and Mrs. Thang to "stabilize the situation, not to talk to outsiders and cause disorder in the area, if anyone is wrong, that person will be fully responsible before the law". Mr. Hoang also requested in the minutes that Mr. Ngo Van Hai must withdraw the application that he had sent to the authorities when he finished working.