Hot issues about policies for people with meritorious services

Delay in granting of Certificate of National Merit

Overview of the question and answer session of the 8th Provincial People's Council meeting. Photo: Thanh Cuong

At the question and answer session, Mr. Doan Hong Vu - Director of the Department of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs gave a general report on the implementation of policies for people with meritorious services and the difficulties and limitations in the implementation process.

The Director of the Department of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs said: In recent years, along with efforts to strive and focus on socio-economic development, the Party Committee and government of Nghe An province have always identified the work of war invalids, martyrs and people with meritorious services to the revolution as a key and regular political task, contributing to improving the material and spiritual life of people with meritorious services in the province.

“However, the implementation of some policies is still flawed, causing resentment among the people; the work of resolving backlog of records, issuing and exchanging Certificates of National Merit, etc. is not yet timely,” said Mr. Doan Hong Vu.

Mr. Doan Hong Vu answers at the question and answer session. Photo: Thanh Cuong

The whole province has more than 700 cases that have been listed by the people and related agencies and units over the years at martyr memorial houses in communes, wards and towns, but the records have not been looked up to request to resolve the regime for relatives and issue the Certificate of National Merit to recognize the martyrs.

The issuance and exchange of "Fatherland's Gratitude" Certificates due to damage or loss has been slow in recent times for various reasons such as: The demand from martyrs' relatives wishing to issue and exchange a large number of "Fatherland's Gratitude" Certificates, each year from 1,000 to 3,000 "Fatherland's Gratitude" Certificates are issued and exchanged, but there are still many requests and backlogs mainly due to the lack of information and data about martyrs to issue "Fatherland's Gratitude" Certificates, which are inconsistent with the national data source.

Mr. Nguyen Huu Vinh, representative of Thanh Chuong district, questioned at the meeting. Photo: Thanh Nga

Delegate Nguyen Huu Vinh - Thanh Chuong district commented: Currently, Thanh Chuong has 430 cases of requesting to renew Certificates, but only 154 Certificates of Merit have been renewed. Among the number of cases that have not been renewed, there are 7 cases with complete information but have not been granted yet. So what solutions does the department have to speed up the renewal process?

Responding to this issue, Mr. Doan Hong Vu said: Currently, the whole province still has 823 cases with full information but have not been granted. Currently, Hung Nguyen district has 161 cases receiving the exchanged Certificate, the remaining more than 600 cases in the whole province are still waiting for the verification process at the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs.

The Department Director also said that previously, there was an instruction that only information about the tombstone could be used to immediately issue a death certificate and relatives could enjoy the worship regime. However, at that time, people did not do it in time, so later, according to the regulations in Circular 16/2014/TT- BLD-TBXH, there were many cases where names were on the tombstones, even tombstones, but were not yet recognized. Therefore, units, localities and departments will try harder to speed up the process of granting the Certificate of Merit to relatives of martyrs.

The Department proposed the Provincial People's Committee to approve the establishment of a Team to verify information on the deaths of 731 people and information on relatives of the deceased who had received benefits before January 1, 1995 to have a basis for issuing death certificates to issue Certificates of National Merit according to Article 13, Circular No. 16/2014/TT-BLD-TBXH dated July 30, 2014 of the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs.

Hot administrative procedure reform

Delegate Nguyen Thi Lan - Do Luong district, asked questions. Photo: Thanh Cuong

Delegate Nguyen Thi Lan - Do Luong commented: Through monitoring the set of administrative procedures for people with meritorious services, it can be seen that departments and branches are still using the old set of procedures, with many regulations on the completion time in handling procedures for people with meritorious services being long, why not use the new set of procedures?

Because according to the delegate's observation, the current processing time for issuing and exchanging the Certificate of Merit is 70 days, however, the above procedure is regulated at the Department of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs as 6 months. The procedure for resolving funeral expenses, the Ministry stipulates 25 days, but in Do Luong it is often delayed up to 1 year.

Regarding this issue, Mr. Doan Hong Vu - Director of the Department of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs said: The industry has submitted a project for the department's administrative procedures, currently the time for re-assessing the disability has been reduced from 15 days to 12 days; the time for re-issuing and changing departments has also been simplified, because according to the new regulations of the Provincial People's Committee since the end of 2016, it is 40 days, but the department has simplified it to only 25 days and will continue to try to simplify other administrative procedures in the coming time.

Ms. Ngo Thi Thu Hien - Vinh City delegate asked questions. Photo: Thanh Nga

The exemption of land use fees for meritorious people was also mentioned by the delegates. Delegate Ngo Thi Thu Hien - Vinh City stated: Since 2013, implementing the Land Law, the Government has stipulated that land rent fees will not be exempted for policy beneficiaries. The Provincial People's Committee has not issued specific regulations on land use fee support for meritorious people, which makes many voters wonder.

Regarding this issue, Mr. Doan Hong Vu said: In fact, in resolving the issue of land use fee exemption for people with meritorious services to the revolution, the Department of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs is responsible for confirming the subjects of meritorious services according to the levels prescribed in Article 10, Decision No. 47/2008/QD-UBND dated August 21, 2008 of the People's Committee of Nghe An province, with support levels from 80 - 90%. Therefore, in reality, we are still implementing the regulations on land rent exemption for subjects with meritorious services.

Groundbreaking ceremony for the construction of a house of gratitude for veteran Nguyen Duc Huong in Ban hamlet, Nghi Thiet commune - Nghi Loc. Photo: Document

Regarding the issue that Ms. Hien asked why according to the regulations, only those who do not have a house are exempted from land use fees, but in Nghe An, this is also the case for resettlement? Mr. Vu affirmed that according to Decision 47/2008/QD-UBND, the province does not exempt or reduce this case.

Responding to the question of delegate To Van Thu (Quynh Luu) about the search, collection, burial and identification of remains of martyrs with missing information, the head of the Department of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs said that the sector has coordinated with the Provincial Military Command in the search, collection, burial and identification of remains of martyrs with missing information. Up to now, the identification of martyrs' graves has been carried out under Project 150 of the Prime Minister, and the search for martyrs' graves is mainly the responsibility of the military.

The hall was still heated with opinions about those who participated in the resistance war and were injured but still did not receive benefits. The industry was asked to inform about the handling plan in the coming time.

After listening to the questions and answers, comrade Nguyen Xuan Son - Standing Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, Chairman of the Provincial People's Council concluded: "The content of the questions about the policies for people with meritorious services was answered quite fully and closely by the Director of the Department of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs, demonstrating receptiveness and responsibility. The Director of the Department presented many general and specific solutions for each problem.

However, in reality, the implementation of policies for people with meritorious services still has many concerns; there is still a fake war invalid trafficking network; the work of issuing and exchanging the Certificate of Merit is slow; many people who participated in the resistance war were injured but because they lost their documents, they have not yet enjoyed the policy for wounded and sick soldiers.

Comrade Nguyen Xuan Son - Standing Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, Chairman of the Provincial People's Council concluded at the question and answer session. Photo: Thanh Cuong

Therefore, in the coming time, we need to continue to pay attention to propaganda work about meritorious people, so that people can understand correctly and actively coordinate with functional agencies in re-identifying necessary information, to promptly enjoy the regimes, and at the same time help them avoid being caught up in fake war invalid trafficking rings.

In implementing policies, authorities also need to rectify wrong and slow links. Focus on inspection and supervision to prevent negativity, and strengthen social policies to increase resources for implementing policies for people with merit.

"We need to improve policies for people with meritorious services because this is both a responsibility and a moral principle, so each level and each sector needs to promote a higher sense of responsibility" - the Chairman of the Provincial People's Council emphasized.

Nghe An is one of the provinces that is managing and paying regular and one-time allowances to people with revolutionary contributions, the third largest in the country (after Hanoi city and Thanh Hoa province).As of November 30, 2018, the whole province is paying regular allowances to 75,084 subjects.