Vietnam - Penalty on power group’s officials to be made public in November

VietNamNet Bridge – The Disciplinary Council, led by the Minister of Home Affairs, is scheduled to meet in November to announce the penalty on wrong-doing officials of the Electricity of Vietnam Group (EVN), said Minister-Chairman of the Government Office Vu Duc Dam on October 28.

On October 28, the Government held a regular meeting. The same afternoon, the Government Office organized a press conference.

According to Mr. Vu Duc Dam, in the meeting, the Prime Minister asked relevant bodies to continue to implement effective solutions to deal with bad debts and quickly complete the overall scheme on dealing with bad debts. The PM also requested the State Bank to carefully check bad debts in all fields. The government will not cover bed debts for state-owned businesses by budget capital.

According to Mr. Dam, the Prime Minister agreed with the solution proposed by the Ministry of Construction to solve difficulties in the real estate market, especially the policy on building houses for low-income people and subjects of the social policy.

"In my point of view, the community of real estate businesses must be responsible and share with each other because previously, many businesses obtained great profit," said Dam. The government always looks for ways to help low-income people to have the opportunity to buy house.

Answering questions about the time for pay rise, Dam said the Government is gathering resources and salary increase will be implemented when the resources are sufficient. Expenses for development investment have been cut maximally and the government cannot cut it further.

Dam said Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung asked to keep the inflation target of the year 2012 at about 8 percent.

Also at the meeting, the Government discussed the draft decree on decentralization of the rights, responsibilities and obligations of the state ownership over state-owned enterprises and state investment.

According to Mr. Dam, the Government asked relevant ministries to submit the list of groups that the Prime Minister still retains some certain rights and responsibilities. The remainders will be assigned to the management of ministries.

Some groups will stop experimental operation and they will be organized in the form of corporations. The groups that are retained will have to restructure, towards focusing on key industries.

Relating to the time to deal with wrong-doing officials of the EVN, Mr. Dam said Mr. Dao Van Hung had resigned from the Chairmanship. He has been replaced by Mr. Hoang Quoc Vuong.

The government has set up a disciplinary council, head by the Minister of Home Affairs. The Council is scheduled to meet in November to announce the penalty on the wrong-doing officials.

In 2011, EVN was one of four state-owned corporations and groups that operated at loss, with the accumulated losses of more than VND44 trillion ($2.2 billion).

Le Nhung

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