Holding people accountable for the fake war invalid problem in Nghe An.

Nghe An province must recover hundreds of billions of VND in funds wrongfully disbursed as war invalid benefits.

(Baonghean.vn) - Out of a total of nearly 120 billion VND that needs to be recovered from nearly 600 war invalids who were not eligible, Nghe An authorities have only recovered over 2.2 billion VND so far.

Nghe An: More members of inter-provincial network for selling fake war invalids arrested.

(Baonghean.vn) - Mr. Hong received more than 260 files from war veterans and subsequently profited billions of dong.

However, according to Mr. Vu, if the issues are analyzed and dissected, the local Party committees and authorities at all levels, as well as some relevant departments and agencies in the province, also bear responsibility.

"Specifically, regarding the 569 cases of war invalids receiving benefits improperly, the primary responsibility lies with the military agencies at all levels and local authorities in reviewing and completing the applications for war invalid status," Mr. Vu said.

Mr. Doan Hong Vu answers questions from delegates. Photo: Thanh Cuong

Mr. Doan Hong Vu stated that the Department of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs received the files from the military agencies to process the allowance payments according to regulations. Now, the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs is inspecting the files at Military Region 4 and discovered errors in the files, directing them to be rectified. The Department has also advised the Provincial People's Committee to issue a plan for handling the issue, has stopped the allowance payments for those who received them incorrectly from August 1, 2018, and directed agencies at all levels to recover the wrongly disbursed funds and deposit them into the State budget as prescribed.

According to Mr. Vu, this situation is partly due to the low level of understanding among some people and the sophistication of some individuals who have exploited loopholes in policies to falsify documents and fraudulently obtain state benefits.

Furthermore, according to the Director of the Department of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs of Nghe An province, some local Party committees and authorities have not yet truly paid attention to directing the implementation of regimes and policies for people with meritorious services, and in some places, implementation is still done in a superficial manner.

In some districts and communes, the process of reviewing eligible individuals has at times and in some places not closely followed the documents, procedures, and guidelines from higher levels; the review process has not been rigorous enough; the steering committee members have not been fully present; and in some cases, there has been a lack of caution in the review process. Inspection and monitoring activities have not been carried out regularly or have been conducted in a perfunctory manner, thus failing to detect and address violations in the implementation of policies in a timely manner. The management of eligible individuals has not been strict; the management, storage, and retrieval of records are still lacking, causing difficulties in implementing policies.

Following three rounds of inspections, more than 800 cases of war invalids receiving benefits improperly were discovered in Nghe An province. (Photo: Tien Hung)

Regarding the hundreds of cases of fraudulent war invalids, Mr. Vu suggested that the solution in the future is to improve public awareness campaigns so that those affected understand that the errors in their records, which led to the suspension of their benefits, were correct. Simultaneously, it is necessary to effectively handle complaints; actively coordinate with local authorities to recover the wrongly received funds; and restore benefits for those who have provided legally valid documents, based on the unified directives between the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs and the 4th Military Region Command…

Also during the questioning session, regarding the issue of fake war invalids, representative Nguyen Thi Lan stated that after the inspection concluded, some war invalids supplemented their files and had their benefits restored. "So, what is the Department's responsibility in this matter?" Ms. Lan asked.

In response to this question, Mr. Doan Hong Vu stated that, after three inspection rounds from 2014 to the present, more than 800 cases of fraudulent war invalid status have been discovered in Nghe An province, resulting in the recovery of hundreds of billions of VND. However, 64 cases were subsequently reinstated after the completion of their documentation.

“Most cases of fake war invalids are discovered when they falsify documents or their names are not on the original list of wounded soldiers kept at the unit. Especially with fake documents, we have to send thousands of files to the central government for verification, which takes many years to get the results. They are also undetectable to the naked eye because they are very sophisticated. For cases where complete documentation is provided, we immediately restore their benefits and honor,” Mr. Vu said.