Nghe An: Commune rents out cultural house to get money for officials to... go on vacation

In November 2016 and September 2017, Nghia My commune (Thai Hoa town) signed two economic contracts with Hi-tex Company Limited to rent the commune's multi-functional cultural house for 11 months to serve as a vocational training location for workers. The total amount of money collected from these contracts was 118 million VND. However, the commune did not enter this amount into the accounting books but into the commune's trade union books according to the policy of the Standing Committee of the Nghia My Commune Party Committee.

Leasing headquarters to businesses is against the provisions of the Law on Asset Management. Meanwhile, the money collected from leasing headquarters was not included in the budget by this commune, but instead, it created fake records to withdraw money from the State Treasury.

Nghia My commune cultural house was rented to a business for 11 months.

According to the reporter's investigation, of the total 118 million VND that this company paid to Nghia My commune, 88 million VND was in cash, 30 million VND was transferred to the State Treasury. To withdraw this 30 million, Nghia My commune created fake documents and records under the name of "Filling and leveling the ground behind Nghia My commune People's Committee" but in reality, no construction was carried out. The agency providing the invoice was Linh Quan Construction Consulting Joint Stock Company.

Regarding the amount of 118 million VND, Ms. Cao Thi Huong - Chairman of the People's Committee of Nghia My commune at that time said that the commune had spent 40.5 million VND for commune and hamlet officials to visit economic models; spent 30 million VND for union officials and members to go on vacation in Cua Lo town; 10 million VND for the union congress for the 2017 - 2021 term and 4.5 million VND to buy invoices to create fake documents to withdraw money from the treasury. The remaining 33 million VND was still unused in the union fund.

A section of the ditch belonging to the pumping station project.

“At that time, I didn’t think it was wrong. At first, the company said it would only be rented for a few months, and the rent was low, so the commune decided to do so. We just wanted to use that money to send our staff on vacation and encourage them to work. But to go on vacation, we need cash, so we created fake documents to withdraw money. I didn’t pocket a single penny,” Ms. Huong explained to a reporter from Nghe An Newspaper. She has now been retired for a month. “Now I accept being disciplined,” she added.

The behavior of the leaders of Nghia My commune was only discovered when the Chairman of the cooperative of this commune filed a complaint. During the investigation, the Nghe An Provincial Inspectorate concluded that the Standing Committee of the Nghia My Commune Party Committee did not put the amount of 118 million VND into the budget, which was against the law. The fact that Linh Quan Consulting and Construction Joint Stock Company (headquartered in Dong Hieu Commune, Thai Hoa) provided false invoices to Nghia My Commune is a violation of the law on tax. Up to now, the People's Committee of Thai Hoa Town has issued a decision to recover the amount of 67.5 million VND that was wrongly spent to the State Budget.

Not only were there violations related to illegal headquarters rental, during the time Ms. Huong was the Chairman of the People's Committee of Nghia My commune, there were many other unclear matters.

Specifically, in November 2013, the People's Committee of Thai Hoa town approved the technical report of the Go Dang - Dong May - Thinh My irrigation pumping station project in Nghia My commune. The investment scale of this project is 45 hectares. However, according to Mr. Dinh Bat Thao - an appraisal officer of the Economic Department of Thai Hoa town People's Committee, when preparing the technical economic report, the consulting unit increased it to 45 hectares to request capital, in fact the irrigation area of ​​the project is only about 15 - 17 hectares. However, recently, the People's Committee of Thai Hoa town has verified and measured the actual area that can be irrigated when the project is completed is 9,928 hectares and the actual capacity of the pump has an irrigation flow of 10 - 15 hectares. Thus, the preparation, appraisal and approval of the technical economic report on the scale of the irrigation project for 45 hectares is baseless, the report on the scale of the project is not true.

The construction process of this project also has a problem that the beginning of the canal is 0.44m lower than the end of the canal. After discovering this, the investor and the construction unit are having to fix it by building bricks to raise the height of both sides of the canal at the beginning of the main canal. Up to now, the project is still under construction, has not been accepted by AB, and has not been settled on completed capital, so citizens believe that the act of inflating the irrigation area to increase the value of the project and withdrawing budget money is unfounded.

Explaining this issue, Ms. Cao Thi Huong said that due to lack of technical expertise in the electricity and construction industry, the commune hired a consulting, design unit, a supervision consulting unit and a functional appraisal unit. Ms. Huong said that she did not take advantage of the above money to appropriate it for personal purposes or distort the project parameters to profit from the State's money. However, for the above violations, the responsibility belongs to the People's Committee of Nghia My commune, headed by the Commune Chairman Cao Thi Huong and related individuals and groups, including the Head of the Finance Department of Thai Hoa town and the Chairman of the People's Committee of Thai Hoa town during this period.

In response to these violations, the People's Committee of Nghe An province has assigned Thai Hoa town to collect the remaining amount to the temporary account of the People's Committee of the town to wait for the next steps. Regarding the pumping station, the investor and contractor are required to overcome the shortcomings and organize acceptance according to the actual construction volume. Organize review, seriously deal with shortcomings and have appropriate forms for individuals and groups that cause violations.

In addition, Thai Hoa town must also take disciplinary action against Chairman of Nghia My Commune People's Committee Cao Thi Huong and related individuals for the above violations. In addition, it is recommended that competent authorities handle the survey and design consulting unit; the supervision and construction unit of the Go Gang - Dong May - Thinh My pumping station project in accordance with the law. Nghe An Tax Department also needs to take measures to review and handle Linh Quan Consulting and Construction Joint Stock Company for providing false invoices to Nghia My Commune People's Committee.