Deputy commune secretary fills wife's name in 'newly escaped poverty' household to borrow capital

On October 19, Mr. Phan Dinh Hinh, Chairman of Ho Do Commune (Loc Ha, Ha Tinh) said that he was discussing the process of considering and handling a number of commune officials who committed violations in preparing documents for preferential bank loans.

In 2016, the Social Policy Bank had a program called "Policy on capital sources for hunger eradication, poverty reduction, and job creation". Poor, near-poor, and newly escaped-poverty households in Ho Do commune were able to borrow 50 million VND.

Although he escaped poverty a long time ago, Mr. Truong Ba Thao (Deputy Secretary of the Commune) is said to have filed a dossier, putting Truong Khac Ho's father's name on the "near-poor" list. Mrs. Tran Thi Tuyet (Mr. Thao's wife) is also considered to have "recently escaped poverty". The two cases above were able to borrow 100 million VND.

Ms. Le Thi Minh (office staff of the Party Committee) and Truong Thi Ha (Chairwoman of the Fatherland Front Committee) also made documents, filling in the names of relatives as "newly escaped poverty" to borrow 30-50 million VND each.

The Chairman of Ho Do commune said that due to the large number of loan applications, he trusted his subordinates when reviewing and did not check carefully, leading to errors. As the leader, he accepted responsibility. Currently, the four violators have returned both principal and interest to the Social Policy Bank, Loc Ha district branch.

"In theory, it is completely wrong, but in terms of sentiment, we need to sympathize. The commune officials themselves have low salaries and allowances, and they do this because they want to create a livelihood for their families and improve the economy. I have reminded them to know their mistakes and correct them," said Mr. Hinh.