Nghe An: People lose 6 million VND to register their household?
(Baonghean) - Administrative reform and reducing procedures that cause inconvenience to people are among the goals that our State is striving to achieve. However, according to the feedback of many people today, they are still not really satisfied when going to public agencies to carry out administrative procedures.
As difficult as applying for a household registration
According to the reflection, registering a household is one of the procedures that makes many people "afraid" the most when they have to do it, because of a series of accompanying troubles. Some localities have issued regulations that if they move from another place, each person who wants to register a household must pay 2 million VND. Meanwhile, there are cases where people have to "run back and forth" dozens of times because the government refuses to confirm the registration.
In April 2018, more than 4 months after having to spend 6 million VND to register his wife and children's names in the family register, Mr. T. (Nam Nghia commune, Nam Dan) was still upset.
Mr. T. said that more than 10 years ago, he got married and lived in a commune also in Nam Dan district. After getting married, for convenience in doing business, he moved to live in his wife's hometown, and his two children were born and registered in his mother's household. Because he is the only son in the family, he recently decided to move back to his father's hometown in Nam Nghia commune to build a house. However, when he went to the commune People's Committee to complete the procedures for registering his residence in the locality, he was asked to pay a fee to have his documents confirmed.
"I submitted all the documents, but after reviewing them, the commune official did not sign and stamp them, but instead brought them to the office of the Commune People's Committee Chairman to ask for his opinion," said Mr. T., adding that the Commune People's Committee Chairman then asked Mr. T. to pay 2 million VND for each person," said Mr. T.
"He said because we were acquaintances, he would give one less person for every 4 people, and only charge 3 people, which was 6 million VND." Although he was very curious about this fee, Mr. T. and his wife had to "bite the bullet" and pay the commune the full 6 million VND.
The receipt has the seal and signature of the Chairman of the Commune People's Committee Nguyen Quang Dung, the reason for paying the money is stated as "voluntary contribution to build the homeland". "It is called voluntary but it is completely mandatory, because if you do not pay, you cannot complete the procedure", Mr. T. was upset.
Mr. Tran Van Son - Vice Chairman of Nam Nghia Commune People's Committee admitted that the commune has collected this amount of money since 2011. The reason given here is to build new rural infrastructure.
“The commune has just been recognized as meeting new rural standards. Everyone here has contributed. Now, people from other localities who want to move here to live and enjoy this infrastructure must contribute. Otherwise, long-time residents will also object,” said Mr. Son, admitting that this money collection is against the regulations.
Pass the buck
Although she did not have to contribute money like Mr. T., Ms. M. (25 years old, Nhan Thanh commune, Yen Thanh district) also encountered many difficulties when completing household registration procedures for her daughter.
“Within half a month, both my biological mother and I had to run back and forth dozens of times just to register my child’s household. It was so tiring,” Ms. M. was still upset. Ms. M. married a Taiwanese man. A few months ago, she returned to her mother’s hometown to give birth. Her daughter was then given a birth certificate and Vietnamese nationality. Recently, she wanted to take her daughter to Taiwan so that her paternal family could see her, so she went through immigration procedures for her daughter.
“When I went to work, they required the child to have his name in the household register, so I decided to do the procedure to register the child with my grandparents. Because I had just given birth and was in poor health, I asked my biological mother to go to work,” Ms. M. said.
After going online to learn about the process and related paperwork, Ms. H. (Ms.'s mother) went to the district, but the district replied that this issue was under the authority of the commune. However, when she met the Chief of Police of Nhan Thanh commune, he said that the commune could not handle this case and had to go to the district.
"After that, I went down to the commune to ask, and then they asked that both the baby's father and mother come to the commune and make a commitment to let the baby be imported to Nhan Thanh, then it could be done," said Ms. M., who believes that the commune's request was intentionally causing difficulties because they knew that her husband was abroad and could not come to Vietnam immediately, while the family needed to complete the import procedures soon.
“When registering the baby’s birth, my husband signed a commitment to register the baby with his maternal family. The birth certificate also stated Vietnamese nationality and permanent address as Nhan Thanh commune. So why did the commune require my husband to be present?”, Ms. M. said, expressing her anger at the working attitude of the commune officials.
This woman also said that after more than half a month of "knocking on the door" of the authorities, her family had to "ask" an acquaintance to "influence" Nhan Thanh commune to complete the procedures to import the baby into the maternal grandparents' family.
Must be for the benefit of the people
The above reflections show a reality about the story of people being made difficult when going to the government office to do administrative procedures. In fact, there are many localities that only issue regulations without explanation, causing people to think that they are being harassed. The case of Mr. L. (25 years old, Kim Lien commune, Nam Dan district) is an example.
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| Mr. L.'s wedding garbage collection receipt (Kim Lien commune, Nam Dan district). Photo: Tien Hung |
In early April, Mr. L. went to the People's Committee of Kim Lien Commune to confirm his marital status to complete the marriage registration procedures. However, when he arrived at the People's Committee, he was informed that he had to pay 200,000 VND for wedding waste before they would confirm.
Mr. L. sent his opinion to Nghe An Newspaper, stating that his family had paid the full amount of garbage fee every month. However, when asked if he had directly sent his question to the commune-level authorities, Mr. L. replied that he was afraid of being bothered and thought it was “the law” so he did not ask.
Reporter of Nghe An Newspaper discussed this issue with Mr. Tran Le Chuong - Chairman of Kim Lien Commune People's Committee. Mr. Chuong said that the commune has collected this fee since 2017 and has been submitted to the Commune People's Council to get voters' opinions.
"We noticed that after each wedding, the household had too much garbage, so we had to collect more. This was highly agreed upon by the people before we started collecting," said Mr. Chuong, adding that the bride's family would collect 150,000 VND, and the groom's family would have to pay 200,000 VND.
Thus, in this case of collecting money from Kim Lien commune, the commune-level government failed to explain thoroughly to the people, leading to unnecessary dissatisfaction.
In Nghe An, every year, the Provincial People's Committee establishes an interdisciplinary inspection team to control administrative procedures, through direct inspection or written reports. According to the 2018 plan, the Provincial People's Committee will distribute survey forms to assess the level of satisfaction with the handling of administrative procedures at agencies and units; thereby promptly correcting existing problems and limiting inconvenience to the people.
Therefore, all levels and sectors need to strictly implement the code of conduct at the agency, maintain the culture in the office in general and meet the expectations of the people when coming to public agencies in particular. On the part of the people, before carrying out an administrative request, it is necessary to equip themselves with relevant legal knowledge to clearly understand how to do it, in order to demand their legitimate rights, and avoid being made difficult or harassed by officials and civil servants.
Nghe An Provincial People's Committee has established a hotline and email box to receive and handle people's feedback and suggestions on administrative procedure settlement: Hotline: 02383668789. Email:[email protected].