Struggling because of the rotating savings and credit association

(Baonghean) - In just the past few years, many large and small hui failures have occurred in Do Luong district with the total estimated amount of money reaching hundreds of billions of dong. Because of hui, abandoned villas because the owners had to hide from debt, conflicts between people in the same ward... have occurred continuously, disrupting village life.

The members of the association gathered at Mr. Viet's house to sign the petition against Ms. Nhung.

The countryside is devastated.

In mid-November, the spacious house that doubles as a clothing and household goods store in the center of Tru Son commune (Do Luong) owned by Ms. Nguyen Thi Hong (49 years old) was packed with people. Ms. Hong and her husband are the owners of a rotating savings and credit association with nearly 120 members from 4 communes: Tru Son, Dai Son, My Son and Hien Son. Today, the members came to the owner's house to sign a petition to sue Ms. Nguyen Thi Nhung (37 years old, Dai Son commune) for causing the hui to collapse.

According to the ward head, more than a year ago, Ms. Nhung applied to join the ward and was accepted by the members. At first, Ms. Nhung fully paid the ward. However, last August, after taking the ward with more than 2 billion VND, Ms. Nhung withdrew. "When it was the other households' turn to take the money, Ms. Nhung refused to pay the debt.

Except for the amount previously paid to the ward periodically, the amount of money that Ms. Nhung had appropriated from the members was more than 1.2 billion VND," the ward chief said, adding that many times the members held meetings and agreed to go to the house to demand the money, but Ms. Nhung deliberately refused to pay and even challenged them. Her family members even attacked and threatened them with sticks.

This is the third time in the past year that the hui led by Ms. Hong has gone bankrupt. The total amount of the three times is more than 7 billion VND. “There are many other cases, but most of the debtors ask for a deferment. Seeing that they are in difficulty, have a trusting attitude, and are really bankrupt, the members of the hui do not demand payment urgently. As for cases where the hui takes the money and lends it at high interest rates, builds houses, and buys land like Ms. Nhung, it is unacceptable.

“If there is no sanction to deal with these cases, the consequences will be huge. There will be bloodshed,” said Mr. Nguyen Thuy Tam (65 years old, hamlet 10, Tru Son commune) and suggested that the authorities should suspend Ms. Nhung’s transactions to prevent the dissipation of assets. More than 2 years ago, Mr. Tam’s family saved money every month to pay to the ward. The amount he has paid up to now is more than 200 million VND, but before it was his turn to collect it, the ward went bankrupt.

The rotating savings and credit association headed by Ms. Hong has nearly 120 members from 4 communes participating.

Although she did not lose a large sum of money like Mr. Tam, more than 40 million VND is a fortune for the family of Ms. Nguyen Thi Long (44 years old, Tru Son commune). The couple only has a few acres of rice fields, working hard all year round just to have enough to eat. Meanwhile, her son has epilepsy, and treatment requires a large sum of money. Not knowing where to get this money, Ms. Long decided to borrow 7 million VND each month to play the hui with the hope of receiving a large sum to take her son to the hospital.

However, after only half a year of joining, the incident happened. “I don’t know what to do now. Losing money has also caused discord between husband and wife. Not only in my family, now every couple here quarrels all day, just because of the hui,” Long sobbed.

The "virtual tycoons"

A few years ago, if you had the chance to visit Dai Son commune, many people would be surprised by the prosperity of this locality. Solid multi-storey houses were built one after another in the remote countryside. Expensive cars were running around the small alleys. However, in just a short time, that luxurious life gradually became a thing of the past that not many people in this countryside wanted to mention.

Dai Son and Tru Son are the communes with the highest number of hui participants in Do Luong district with thousands of households. After joining the hui with each round of drawing up to billions of dong, many families used that money to build multi-story houses, buy cars, and live a very luxurious life. However, after being rich for a short time, when they no longer had enough money to participate in the monthly hui round, they declared bankruptcy.

Due to the reaction of other members, the cars were sold one by one but it was still not enough. Many families had to leave their houses, children, and leave their hometowns. Up to now, the whole Dai Son commune has dozens of abandoned houses like that. Just last year, many families lived happily. Every afternoon, they drove their cars to take their wives to play volleyball and then drank, very luxurious. But now, it is like "eating bananas with the peel", not to mention having to live in hiding.

When asked about Nguyen Thi Nhung’s case, people were not surprised. “There are countless cases like this here,” said one resident.

One of the spacious houses in Dai Son (Do Luong) has been abandoned for many months because the owner fell into debt and left his hometown.

In addition, Mrs. Nhung and her husband also used that large sum of money to build a house and buy a car. Mrs. Nhung also operated like a bank. Whoever deposited money to earn interest, she also accepted. Then she used that money to lend to others at high interest rates. She was both a debtor and a creditor. However, when Mrs. Nhung's debtors could not pay, Mrs. Nhung began to fall into bankruptcy.

Because the closing of the hui is not done through any management agency, the local government does not have exact statistics on the cases of hui failure. However, according to estimates, Dai Son commune alone has about 50 people similar to Ms. Nhung's case, with debts of up to hundreds of billions of dong.

Sitting absentmindedly in the biggest blanket, sheet, pillow, and mattress store in Dai Son commune, Ms. Nguyen Thi Hang (33 years old) said that her business has never been as sluggish as it is now. The reason is also because of the hui. In previous years, Ms. Hang's store was always crowded with customers. Especially, when many players of the hui took their turn to draw money, they spent a large sum of money to buy expensive items, including the items she sells.

“Now the chain of savings and credit associations has collapsed. Every family is in debt, so where do they get money to buy things, even though Tet is almost here? Even my family participates in savings and credit associations, now they have run away with the money, losing more than 100 million VND and still haven’t recovered it,” Ms. Hang said sadly, looking far away at the majestic houses abandoned when the owners had to flee because the savings and credit associations collapsed.

Considering that the situation of broken savings and credit association in some localities is very alarming, Colonel Thai Khac Thong - Head of Do Luong District Police said that in many meetings of the District Party Committee Standing Committee, he has also mentioned this issue many times. Do Luong District Police have also received many complaints about broken savings and credit association, however, according to Colonel Thong, this is only a civil dispute so the police do not accept it but suggest that people should send it to the court.

“There are still many cases that have not been exposed, including many cases involving civil servants. Most of the cases of hui collapse cannot be prosecuted because the investigating agency cannot prove the crime and does not have enough elements to constitute it,” said Colonel Thong.

The head of the Do Luong District Police said that in meetings he had asked authorities at all levels to be more proactive in propagating so that people would not participate in the hui. Talking about the fact that despite the high risk, many people still compete to play the hui, Colonel Thong said that the mentality of many people is to save up to receive a large sum of money when they need to take care of business.

“In the past, people often joined the association so that when their family had an event, they could collect the money and avoid having to borrow. But now it has changed, many people participate just to collect the money and then use it to lend money at high interest rates or spend lavishly, causing the association to collapse. Therefore, we need to propagate to eliminate it,” said Colonel Thong.

Tien Hung