Tan Ky: Rectifying the assessment of poor households

(Baonghean) - The assessment of poor households in recent years has had many issues worth discussing. That is, the situation of favoritism, unfairness and the assessment has not complied with the criteria based on Decision 09/2011/QD-TTg of the Prime Minister on promulgating standards for poor and near-poor households applicable for the period 2011 - 2015, causing the number of poor households to increase, which is not true to reality. In this situation, the People's Council of Tan Ky district has organized a monitoring session to re-evaluate the assessment of poor households in the district...

CAccording to Decision 09/2011/QD-TTg dated January 30, 2011 of the Prime Minister on promulgating standards for poor and near-poor households applicable for the period 2011 - 2015. Accordingly, the poor household standard is a household with an average income of 400,000 VND/person/month (from 4,800,000 VND/person/year) or less in rural areas and a household with an average income of 500,000 VND/person/month (from 6,000,000 VND/person/year) or less in urban areas; the near-poor household standard is 130% of the poor household standard. According to Circular 21/2012/TT-BLDTBXH dated September 5, 2012 of the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs guiding the process of investigating and reviewing poor and near-poor households annually, the investigation and review of poor and near-poor households is not conducted in the entire area, but is based on the list of poor and near-poor households being managed locally.

Before the People's Council organized a monitoring session to assess poor households, most communes in the district had a high rate of poor households. Talking about the cause of that situation, Mr. Nguyen Van Hoa - Vice Chairman of the People's Council of Tan Ky district said: "Through monitoring, it was discovered that the assessment of poor households at the grassroots level still had a state of favoritism, was not accurate, and was not fair. Some people, wanting to become poor households, tried to separate their households to be assessed, and there were still some households with children working far away, with stable economies, when the inspection committee implemented the review, they moved their assets to be scored as meeting the criteria for poor households".

For Tan Huong commune, every year the Commune's Poor Household Assessment Committee quickly classifies the households that are eligible for assessment in order to make initial assessments of the list of poor households in the commune. Accordingly, poor households with enough points for asset value, average income per capita or households with sudden serious illnesses will be included in the list of poor households. However, because there is still a state of favoritism, the voting at the hamlet level is still not really accurate, leading to the situation where the rate of poor households is much higher than the actual number. Mr. Le Duc Thuyen - Vice Chairman of the commune said: "In 2011, there was a phenomenon of every household wanting to be on the list of poor households to enjoy preferential policies of the State. At that time, the Commune Steering Committee had not yet established cross-monitoring working groups, so the rate of poor households in the area was still high".

Tan Xuan used to be a unit with a high poverty rate of up to 31.6%, but by early 2014 the whole commune had only 95 households with a rate of 8.1%. To achieve such positive results, in addition to closely monitoring the evaluation process, ensuring democracy and openness, if any household does not agree with the evaluation process, the steering committee will thoroughly explain the policy criteria for poor households. In addition, through propaganda and explanation, people have fully realized that the policy for poor households must be targeted to the right subjects. Mr. Van - Chairman of Tan Xuan Commune People's Committee said: "In the past 2 years, we have seriously implemented the evaluation process, so the poverty rate in the commune is very close to reality".

During the supervision process, the People's Councils at all levels supervised the evaluation process, whether poor households and near-poor households were transparent, democratic, and objective, and whether the rate of households participating in the evaluation was ensured according to regulations. Through the survey, most of the 20 communes in the district conducted the evaluation process according to regulations. However, there were still cases where households with many relatives were included in the list of poor households, and in some places there was disunity because in reality there were many households with similar circumstances but did not receive this policy, which raised questions and demands to be added to the list of poor households. In some places, the Commune Steering Committee still conducted a cursory investigation, lacking specificity, and the scoring of criteria was unclear...

After monitoring, the People's Councils at all levels have advised the Party Committees and closely directed the grassroots levels to evaluate the right subjects according to the criteria. Most localities in the district have strictly implemented the evaluation of poor households so that the policy for poor households really reaches those in difficult circumstances who need support and help from the community. Mr. Le Duc Thuyen - Vice Chairman of Tan Huong Commune People's Committee said: "In the past 2 years, we have carried out a strict review. After having the voting list, we directly went to each household to check and score. For example, any household that splits households at the beginning of the year but is considered a poor household at the end of the year must be reconsidered. Any household with children working far away will not be included in the list of poor households like in previous years."

Based on the criteria, the assessment of poor households must be conducted democratically, publicly, transparently, creating conditions for people at the grassroots level to know, discuss, inspect and supervise the implementation. In addition, it is necessary to build a team of grassroots cadres who are impartial and do the assessment work according to the criteria. Only on the basis of accurate assessment of poor households can all assistance from the State and society reach the right subjects, truly helping poor households to improve their lives and escape poverty. In addition, it is necessary to propagate and create public opinion to praise households that try to escape poverty and condemn households that wait, rely on, and find every way to enjoy preferential policies of the State for poor households.

After the monitoring period at the end of 2013, the poverty rate in the whole district in 2011 was 24.81%, by the end of 2013 this rate was only 14.4%. In 2014, the total number of poor households in the whole district was 4,884, down from 615 households in early 2013. The poverty rate decreased by more than 10% in the whole district not because poor households escaped poverty thanks to preferential policies and support from the State but thanks to the discovery and comparison in the monitoring and inspection of the People's Councils at all levels in the assessment of poor households at the grassroots level.

Thanh Nga