Inspecting war invalids' records, 90 cases had their benefits suspended

((Baonghean.vn) - The provincial Department of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs has just decided to suspend regular allowances and all preferential policies for 90 cases in the province that are considered fake war invalids.

According to Mr. Nguyen Dang Duong, Deputy Director of the Department of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs, this move was made after the inspection team of the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs coordinated with the Ministry of National Defense to inspect 22,000 war invalids of all kinds in the province, then sent the results in batches requesting the Department to issue a decision to suspend the subsidy.

The inter-ministerial inspection team has been working since April 2016. Of these, 90 suspended cases are only the results of the first round of conclusions. Currently, the team is still reviewing the remaining files, and it is expected that many more fake war invalid files will be exposed. The full conclusion will be announced by the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs in 2017. The war invalid cases considered "fake" in this round of conclusions will have their benefits suspended from all preferential regimes from September.

Officers of Dien Chau District Military Command guide the procedures for confirming war invalid records. Photo: Document.

According to the conclusion, most of these 90 war invalids' records were previously established on the basis of copies of wounded soldiers issued by the divisions. However, the inspection results showed that the original list of wounded soldiers still kept in units did not have their names or had their names inserted.

Also in the conclusion of the inter-ministerial inspection, in addition to suspending the subsidy, the inspection team also requested to collect all the money that had been wrongly allocated to the wrong beneficiaries up to now and send it to the ministry's account. According to statistics, these 90 war invalids were mainly recorded since 2004. Since then, they have received a total of more than 16 billion VND. The amount each person has received ranges from about 120 million VND to more than 200 million VND.

However, according to Mr. Nguyen Dang Duong, it is very difficult to collect this amount of money. “Most of them are old and weak. Their circumstances are not very good. Now, where can we get such a large amount of money to pay back? Meanwhile, there is currently no sanction to handle cases of not returning the money,” said Mr. Duong.

In 2014, the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs also conducted random inspections and discovered 195 files of alleged fake war invalids in the province. The Ministry then requested the provincial Department of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs to suspend the subsidy and collect the entire amount of about 20 billion VND. However, since then, only a handful of people have returned the money, most of whom have only returned a small amount compared to the amount they received over many years.

The leader of the Department of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs said that these suspended cases can still clear their names by providing documents to prove it. In case of proof, the authorities will restore all regimes as well as refund the amount of money during the suspension period.

Tien Hung