Ineligible households still received Gov’t COVID-19 support: report

As many as 2,000 ineligible households have benefitted from Government’s $2.7-billion COVID-19 subsidy package while many poor and near-poor households in Hà Nội, Hưng Yên, Đồng Nai, and Gia Lai provinces have been left out, according to recent report by the inspectors from Ministry of Labour, Invalids, and Social Affairs.

Distribution of Government’s COVID-19 support for households affected by the pandemic. Source kinhtedothi.vn

The ministry’s inspectors pointed out that many districts and communes have not carried out periodic and regular reviews of poor and near-poor households under their jurisdictions, which mean that those households getting poor in 2020 due to unexpected difficulties are unable to get timely access to support policies, while other households that have actually climbed out of poverty are not removed from the list of poor and near-poor.
Specifically, from July 10, 2020 to August 21, 2020, the inspectors verified 558 poor households and 3,705 near-poor households in Hanoi’s Phu Xuyen District, and found 125 households that do not meet the poor household criteria, and 1,894 households that do not meet the near-poor household criteria.
Phu Xuyen District has not wasted any time in disbursing COVID-19 support to poor and near-poor households as per the list approved  in 2019, while the inspectors’ findings are done at the time of the inspection.
In Van Giang District of Hung Yen Province, the inspectors have inspected the list of 502 poor households, and found that 10 are not eligible to be considered poor or near-poor, and eight should be considered as near-poor.
Out of the 791 near-poor households in the list submitted by local authorities, 158 do not fit the criteria of near-poor households, while 104 could be considered poor already. In addition, 14 households in extreme hardship were not in either lists of poor or near-poor households by the authorities, according to inspectors.
In Thong Nhat District, the southern province of Dong Nai, verification against 319 poor and 140 near-poor households have shown 27 and 72 ineligible households in each category, respectively.
Inspectors said Gia Lai Province’s Chu Prong District authorities have distributed support worth VND 6.1 billion for 8,214 people in poor households, and VND 14.295 billion for 19,061 people in near-poor households.
In a random inspection against 642 households in the official list of near-poor and poor, in addition to 15 others outside the list, in Chu Prong District, inspectors found that 30 households (with 37 people) were eligible for COVID-19 support worth VNĐ 27.75 million but had not received it, while 10 others (with 15 people) were deemed ineligible but still received support of VNĐ 11.25 million in total.
14 out of the additionally inspected 15 households are eligible to be considered poor households, according to the report.
The labor ministry’s inspectors have asked Hanoi and three provinces to review the situation and ameliorate the shortcomings in State management over poverty reduction support.
Local labor departments should inspect the implementation of poverty reduction policies in the last six months of 2020 and 2021 in line with the labor ministry’s orientations, to make sure that poverty reduction policy implementation in district-level localities under their jurisdiction will be inspected within 2021.
Chairmen of districts’ people’s committees must facilitate and supervise the agencies under inspection in their efforts to overcome shortcomings, and draw experience from the mistakes.
In addition, local governments should clarify whether there is corruption and profiteering in the recognition of poor and near-poor households.
District leaders must direct communes to withdraw and return to the State coffers the money that has been paid to households not meeting the poor or near-poor criteria, as well as make timely payments to eligible recipients.