Company director arrested for hiring only "pregnant women"

Tra Vinh Provincial Police have just temporarily detained Doan Van Cuong, born in 1978 - director of Online Media Company Limited (Can Tho), a business established solely to recruit "pregnant women" to collect maternity benefits from the Social Insurance Fund.

Online Media Company Headquarters.

Previously, PLVN Newspaper had a series of articles reflecting that, because he used to work at the recording studio of Can Tho Social Insurance, after quitting his job, with little knowledge about Social Insurance and understanding some loopholes in this industry, Doan Van Cuong established Online Media LLC with a series of offices in many provinces in the West. After that, Cuong sent people to rural areas to find and entice pregnant women, persuaded and promised them that if they agreed to provide information and let the company handle the procedures, each person would receive 2 - 4 million VND after giving birth.

After completing the "negotiation" process with the pregnant women, Cuong and his accomplices went to the Social Insurance agency to declare and pay Social Insurance and Health Insurance (the company paid 100% of the amounts according to regulations). After paying for 6 months as required by law, they would prepare documents to apply for maternity benefits. However, on January 1, 2012, when the company online made a list of requests for maternity benefits for 5 employees with a total amount of 119,500,000 VND, Vinh Long Social Insurance became suspicious and reported to the police.

However, before that, in Cau Ke (Tra Vinh), Doan Van Cuong successfully profited more than 54 million VND thanks to pregnant "employees" such as: Le Thi Muc (Cuong's wife with the amount of 30,193,300 VND), Ho Thi Tr and Huynh Thi Th 30,720,000 VND, Nguyen Thi Kim Q (13,360,000 VND), Nguyen Thi L (24,860,000 VND)...

According to Ms. Huynh Thi Ngoc Linh - Director of Vinh Long Social Insurance, here Cuong created a file to request more than 119 million VND for 5 "employees" but because he was discovered, he has not received any money. Meanwhile, in Tra Vinh, Cuong successfully carried out dozens of cases to pocket more than 150 million VND. Currently, Tra Vinh Provincial Police are expanding the investigation.

After this incident, many legal experts said that from the above story, loopholes in the social insurance policy have been clearly revealed, if there are no preventive measures, it will create opportunities for many subjects to exploit for profit. Lawyer Phung Thi Hoa - Head of Cho Lon Law Office analyzed: If employees pay 6 months of social insurance according to the law, the right to receive maternity benefits is natural (with the principle of paying - receiving), and the social insurance agency is not allowed to refuse to pay this amount.

So, what about companies that are set up solely to profit from the social insurance fund like the Doan Van Cuong “corporation”? This is the issue that needs attention. According to lawyer Hoa, assuming the company pays the maximum social insurance premium of about 16 million VND/month, then when applying for maternity benefits, they will receive 16 million x 4 months = 64 million VND.

Previously, I only paid social insurance and health insurance with a total amount of less than 20 million VND. Not to mention that I will receive a one-time allowance upon giving birth equal to 2 months of the general minimum wage. In addition, after 1 year, the company will have an additional one-time social insurance allowance, the amount received is 1.5 months of basic salary (24 million VND). Thus, with a small initial "capital" after 6 months, the company will achieve "revenue" of super profit.

In the case of Doan Van Cuong, there were certain “mistakes” in the implementation, so they were discovered. But how were other subjects who followed the correct and reasonable procedures discovered and handled? According to experts, to avoid cases of setting up companies and recruiting “pregnant women” to take advantage of maternity benefits as above, amending Clause 2, Article 28 of the Social Insurance Law is very necessary.

Specifically, the requirement for social insurance payment period to receive maternity benefits must be increased from 6 months to 9 months or more, which will close the loophole that online companies exploit. This is an issue that lawmakers and implementing agencies need to pay attention to.

According to Phapluat-M