Nghe An: Many war invalids suffer disadvantages due to district officials 'overlooking records'.

Tired of waiting for the regime

For months now, Mr. Vo Van Luu (75 years old, Dien Thinh commune, Dien Chau district), along with dozens of other war invalids, have been continuously visiting government agencies to demand their rights. Mr. Luu is a 4/4-level war invalid who served in the military for many years. Whenever he hears about a public consultation session in Dien Chau district, he and his elderly comrades rush to the district People's Committee office with their children and grandchildren to inquire about policies.

Mr. Luu recounted that in 2013, after receiving notification of the government's policy on housing for war veterans under Decision 22, he and many other veterans in the commune prepared all the necessary documents and submitted them to Dien Thinh commune. They then borrowed money to build new houses, but it wasn't until 2018 that they learned that, along with more than 50 other people in the commune, Mr. Luu was not on the list of those eligible for the support. "We immediately went to the relevant authorities to inquire. But nearly two years have passed and we still haven't received the support," Mr. Luu said angrily.

Veterans in Dien Thinh commune have been searching for their rights for months.

Mr. Ha Huy Dong, Chairman of the People's Committee of Dien Thinh commune, said that in 2014, the commune had completed the necessary paperwork for 53 people to receive housing support and submitted it to the district. However, their names were not included in the approved list. Currently, many people are wondering why, and the commune has also requested the district to resolve the issue.

Following complaints from the people, on August 6, 2019, the People's Committee of Dien Chau district established a team to inspect the performance of official duties and tasks in implementing the supplementary list of beneficiaries of the policy for people with meritorious services to the revolution who are facing housing difficulties, according to Decision No. 22 of the Prime Minister.

The inspection team subsequently concluded that in Dien Thinh commune, 53 cases were not approved in the project. The Dien Thinh Commune People's Committee affirmed that it had submitted the proposal, list, and applications of the 53 households to the District's Economic and Infrastructure Department within the stipulated time. The documents were submitted directly to Mr. Phan Xuan Tuan, a permanent member of the District's Steering Committee, for compilation and approval. At that time, Mr. Tuan was the Deputy Head of the Dien Chau District's Economic and Infrastructure Department.

Checking the records at the Department of Economy and Infrastructure, 13 applications from residents out of the 53 cases were found. Through discussions with the village secretaries and heads of the hamlets in Dien Thinh, they all confirmed that the households' applications had been submitted to the commune, not to the Department of Economy and Infrastructure. Therefore, the presence of 13 applications at the department confirms that the households' applications were received by the Dien Chau District Department of Economy and Infrastructure.

The planning and compilation process of this department lacked proper verification and review, resulting in the omission of 53 cases in Dien Thinh commune for district approval. Furthermore, the inspection by Dien Chau district revealed that 13 households in Dien Minh commune were not included in the approved project; and 67 cases in Dien Phu commune were not approved due to late submission of documents (the deadline for submission was April 25, 2014, but Dien Phu commune submitted the documents to the District Economic and Infrastructure Department nearly a month later).

District officials... negligent?

Explaining the situation, an official from the Economic and Infrastructure Department of Dien Chau district stated that the process of receiving applications from policy beneficiary families involved many stages, the large number of applications, and the changing of staff over the years resulted in inconsistent storage and handover, leading to omissions and losses. Those who directly implemented the project in the past have also transferred to other positions.

Speaking with a reporter from Nghe An Newspaper, Mr. Le Manh Hien, Vice Chairman of the Dien Chau District People's Committee, stated that the veterans' complaints were entirely justified. "It's truly unfair to them; these are all cases that should have been entitled to the policies as stipulated. But due to negligence by the district officials responsible for compiling the files, their records were overlooked," Mr. Hien said.

Regarding solutions, the Vice Chairman of the Dien Chau District People's Committee stated that the district is facing a deadlock. The housing program for war veterans ended at the end of 2019. Now, supplementing the files of these war invalids is impossible due to a lack of funding. Just considering the 53 cases in Dien Thinh commune alone, the cost of building and repairing houses would amount to billions of dong.

The leaders of Dien Chau district believe that the responsibility for this incident lies with Mr. Phan Xuan Tuan, Deputy Head of the Economic and Infrastructure Department. However, eight months have passed since Dien Chau district concluded the case after establishing a public service inspection team, and the locality has yet to discipline anyone. “The stance of the Standing Committee of the District Party Committee as well as the leaders of the District People's Committee is to handle the matter strictly. We will take action soon,” said Mr. Le Manh Hien.

The chairman of Luu Kien commune (right) said that after withdrawing the money, the commune did not put it into the fund to pay the people but used it to pay off debts.

On April 26, 2013, the Prime Minister issued Decision No. 22 on housing support for people who have rendered meritorious services to the revolution. In Nghe An province, 26,846 households benefited from this policy (13,748 households received support for new house construction and 13,098 households for house repairs), with a total support budget of nearly 816 billion VND. This is a major and practical policy of the Party and State aimed at ensuring improved housing quality, stable living conditions, and enhanced material and spiritual well-being for people who have rendered meritorious services to the revolution. However, during the implementation process, some localities have committed violations, causing public dissatisfaction.

For example, consider the case in Luu Kien commune (Tuong Duong district). In this commune, 93 households were approved to receive support under Decision 22, equivalent to 2,380,000,000 VND. The Luu Kien commune People's Committee subsequently withdrew money from the Tuong Duong district State Treasury three times, totaling 2.4 billion VND (20 million VND more than the approved amount). However, by June 2019, when the Tuong Duong district inspection team visited, the commune had only disbursed 2.05 billion VND, leaving a surplus of 90 million VND in the commune's fund. The remaining 260 million VND was "missing." "Because the commune had a large debt from the previous term, we used that money to pay off the debt. Now we have returned all of it to the District Department of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs after the inspection team requested it," said Mr. Vi Van Bang, Chairman of the commune People's Committee. However, the Chairman of the People's Committee of this commune could not provide payment invoices or disclose the specific debts that the commune had paid.