The commune arbitrarily issued a regulation that 'people must ask for confirmation from the village chief before going to the commune to do any paperwork'?

Controversial regulation

For nearly a month now, many people in Thanh An commune (Thanh Chuong district), when going to the commune headquarters to request confirmation of their records, were surprised when commune officials refused to work and asked them to return to meet the village chief to request a certificate of "good compliance with the Party and State's policies and obligations to contribute to building new rural areas".

“I don’t understand who came up with this regulation. It’s very time-consuming and cumbersome. Because the village chief doesn’t always sit at home waiting for you to come and ask for a confirmation. Sometimes you wait all day and still can’t meet them,” said a resident of An Phu hamlet who just went to ask for a confirmation in his job application.

According to the reporter's investigation, this regulation of Thanh An commune was issued from March 10, 2024, requiring all people to comply. According to the announcement document of Thanh An Commune People's Committee, "Currently, in the whole commune, there are still many unfinished projects according to the criteria for new rural construction, implemented according to the policy of the State and the people working together. Through implementation, a few cadres, party members and people have shown signs of procrastination in fulfilling their obligations to contribute to the construction of new rural areas in the locality".

Implementing the conclusions of the regular meeting of the Commune People's Committee, to ensure that rights go hand in hand with obligations, all people in the entire commune from March 10, 2024, when coming to the Commune People's Committee to do administrative procedures and documents, must have confirmation from the village chief about whether or not the family has complied with the policies of the Party and the State and the obligations to contribute to the construction of new rural areas set forth by the locality.

“If there is no confirmation from the village chief, the commune People's Committee and the one-stop transaction department will temporarily suspend the transaction. For village cadres and party members coming to transact, there must be confirmation from the Party Cell Secretary,” the announcement of the Thanh An commune People's Committee stated.

New rural completion goal

Like other villages, Mr. Nguyen Trong Thanh - Head of An Phu village said that right after receiving this notice from the commune, he also widely informed the people to comply. At the same time, he printed the confirmation forms for the people.

Specifically, people are required to meet directly with the village chief to request a certificate. This includes the following contents: Having complied with the Party's policies, the State's laws and regulations, the implementation contents of the commune, hamlet, cluster - residential group that have been discussed and decided; Regarding the State funds that the family has paid and has not paid up to now; Fulfilling local obligations including environmental fees, traffic funds, intra-field funds and household registration 64 from 2003 to 2021; The new rural construction plan from 2022 to 2024 that has been and is being implemented locally.

According to Village Chief Nguyen Trong Thanh, to complete the new rural area in the 2022-2024 period, the village will only collect money from people of working age, each person must pay 3 million VND in 3 years. Meanwhile, the village has more than 1,200 people of working age. Thus, the village will collect more than 3.7 billion VND in 3 years. However, so far, it has only collected about 1.7 billion VND.

“We do not require the full payment, but people must clearly state how much of all the funds the household has contributed to the obligation? The remaining amount the family must commit to paying at what time in 2024,” Mr. Thanh said, adding that since the introduction of this regulation, many people have come to ask for his confirmation and “all are happy, no comments”.

According to Mr. Thanh, this is not the first time Thanh An commune has applied this regulation. Accordingly, in 2003, Thanh An commune had up to 4 billion VND in debt. The commune leaders at that time had to issue similar regulations to recover the fund funds from the people. By 2009, the regulation was abolished.

“Right after the regulation was abolished, the situation of unpaid contributions began to arise. Therefore, this regulation is a measure to collect money,” Mr. Thanh said, adding that the entire village currently has 350 households and has a total debt of 18 million VND, since 2009 until now. Of which, the household with the highest debt is more than 1 million VND, while many households only owe a few tens of thousands of VND. The debts that people owe the most are mainly money from the Gratitude Fund and the Natural Disaster Prevention Fund.

Mr. Nguyen Canh Nam - Chairman of Thanh An Commune People's Committee said that the locality was assigned by the district to reach the new rural area goal by 2024. However, to build a new rural area, the village chiefs must be empowered to complete the contributions.

“Legally speaking, this regulation is incorrect, no law allows it. But we implement it according to village customs. Based on the actual situation of the locality and from the proposals of the villages. Because in the locality, many people are slow in paying the money,” Mr. Nam said, adding that the whole commune has only 1,500 households with more than 6,000 people, but is in debt of about 200 million VND. The outstanding debts from 2016 are mainly the Gratitude Fund, internal transportation, and natural disaster prevention.

“There have been no sanctions for a long time, so we have not been able to collect them. This regulation is also to raise people's awareness. When they come to ask for a confirmation letter, we do not require them to pay all the money. They can pay a small amount in advance and then commit to paying the rest. For these cases, if they apply for a job, I also confirm that they have not complied well with the Party and State's policies, but I do not confirm that they have not complied,” said the Chairman of the People's Committee of Thanh An commune.

According to the reporter, since Thanh An commune proposed the regulation, many people have expressed their disagreement. "The number of people who are slow in paying their contributions is very small. But the commune requires people from the whole commune to go to the village to get a confirmation paper before being allowed to work at the commune, which is unfair. Such a regulation is very troublesome," said a resident of Thanh An commune.

Meanwhile, there are also a few people who support the regulation. "Only by doing so will people pay and build new rural roads. It is not fair if some people pay and others do not. However, in my opinion, this regulation should only be applied for a short time. If it is applied for a long time, it will be really troublesome and cumbersome," this person said.

At Point b, Clause 1, Section V of the National Target Program on New Rural Construction for the 2021-2025 period, issued together with Decision 263/QD-TTg in 2022, it is stipulated as follows: Local authorities (province, district, commune) do not require people to contribute, but only mobilize people in appropriate forms to voluntarily contribute to building local socio-economic infrastructure. The community and people in the commune discuss the specific voluntary contribution level for each project and propose the People's Council of the commune to approve.