People's "ears and eyes"

(Baonghean) - In a short period, from May to October 2014, in two of the poorest districts of the province, Con Cuong and Quy Hop, two commune People's Committee chairmen and their subordinates, including accountants and treasurers, were prosecuted by authorities and recommended for prison sentences (approved by the Procuratorate). These two cases, in two different districts, share a common point: direct or due to "lax management," violations of policies and regulations concerning the poor occurred, and more importantly, all these irregularities were discovered by the poor themselves.

Returning to the cases: In Con Cuong district, following the directive from higher authorities to provide financial support to commune officials with low salary coefficients and to poor households in the district, due to the irresponsibility of the head of Luc Da commune, the commune accountant colluded with a business owner (through a personal account) to create fraudulent documents, embezzle assets, and misappropriate hundreds of millions of dong from the state budget.

Meanwhile, in Quy Hop district, also related to the State's policy on housing and auxiliary construction for poor households, the Chairman of the People's Committee of Chau Loc commune abused his authority to direct subordinates to distribute funds incorrectly, to the wrong recipients, and create fraudulent documents to use money for other activities that were not intended for the purpose, causing a significant loss of money (not to mention, this commune leader also used every means to "legalize" the documents to obtain a fake resume for promotion).

The actions of the aforementioned corrupt officials at the local level have been investigated and handled by the relevant authorities. What remains is why major state policies and guidelines, publicly announced through all media channels and implemented through various stages from the provincial to the local level, have only now been investigated and brought to light, despite the fact that these issues occurred so long ago (from 2011 to 2013). Furthermore, all these "blemishes" were not investigated and clarified by any supervisory or auditing agency or organization, but rather by the poor people themselves, who are the "eyes and ears" of the matter, through their reporting.

The people are the "eyes and ears" of the Party and the State; all actions of the Party, its officials, and Party members are perceived, evaluated, and trusted by the people. Therefore, promoting the role of the people in monitoring, cooperating, assisting, and fighting against ideological and moral degradation among some officials and Party members today is more important than ever.

Trinh Xuan(Vinh City)