Ministry of Education and Training speaks out about female director receiving 5 years in prison for causing 45 million VND in damage

The Investigation Police Agency of Hung Nguyen District Police read the orders to initiate criminal proceedings, prosecute the accused, and temporarily detain the accused Le Thi Dung. Photo: Nghe An Police

Mr. Vu Duc Minh, Director of the Department of Teachers and Educational Managers, Ministry of Education and Training, said that through information sources, the Ministry of Education and Training learned that the People's Court of Hung Nguyen district (Nghe An) opened a trial to sentence Ms. Le Thi Dung, former Director of the Center for Vocational Education and Continuing Education (GDNN-GDTX) of Hung Nguyen district to 5 years in prison for the crime of "abusing position and power while performing official duties", causing a loss of 45 million VND to the state budget.

"The leaders of the Ministry of Education and Training are very interested in this case and have directly discussed with the leaders of the People's Committee of Nghe An province, expressing their wish that the province's legal agencies review the case comprehensively, ensuring strict, objective, fair and lawful trial, preventing injustice and wrongdoing; ensuring the legitimate and legal rights of citizens in general and teachers in particular; at the same time demonstrating the humanity of the socialist legal system," said Mr. Minh.

Previously, on April 7, 10, 11, 17 and 24, Hung Nguyen District People's Court held a public first-instance trial of criminal case No. 65/2022/TLST-HS on November 30, 2022. According to the case file and the proceedings at the trial, in 1992, Hung Nguyen District Vocational Education and Continuing Education Center was established, a grade 5 school according to Circular No. 48 of the Ministry of Education and Training.

Regarding financial regime, on December 31, 2011, the People's Committee of Hung Nguyen district decided to grant autonomy and financial responsibility to the Continuing Education Center, which is a type of public service unit with revenue, self-guaranteeing a part of regular operating costs, and implementing an autonomous regime.

On May 20, 2010, Ms. Le Thi Dung was approved by the Hung Nguyen District Party Committee as Secretary of the Vocational Education and Continuing Education Center. On October 1, 2012, Ms. Dung was appointed as Director of the Vocational Education and Continuing Education Center for the 2012-2017 term. Accordingly, Ms. Dung is also the account holder of the Vocational Education and Continuing Education Center.

After being appointed as director, Ms. Le Thi Dung held meetings and issued internal spending regulations from 2013 to 2017. The issuance of the above internal spending regulations must be sent to the superior management agency, the Department of Education and Training, but Ms. Dung did not send them. This violation led to the years 2012, 2014, 2015, 2016, as the account holder, Ms. Dung declared some payment contents twice for a financial transaction.

Specifically, Ms. Dung paid the first payment for the following contents: Party cell secretary; support for graduate studies and training, and testing in accordance with the law. Ms. Dung continued to convert these contents into teaching hours to pay for overtime (2nd payment) with the amount of more than 44.7 million VND. The entire amount was transferred to Ms. Dung's personal account.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Huong was an accountant at the Vocational Education and Continuing Education Center of Hung Nguyen district from 2012 to 2017. After Ms. Le Thi Dung and other staff and teachers declared, the relevant departments compiled and signed a confirmation for Ms. Huong based on those summary tables to proceed with the request for the State Treasury of Hung Nguyen district to pay overtime from the state budget allocated to the center.

When Ms. Dung declared her professional activities and transferred them, Ms. Huong discovered that some of the declared contents were not in accordance with the law. However, as Ms. Dung's subordinate, Ms. Huong still completed the procedures and documents so that Ms. Dung could receive the above amount of money, causing damage to the budget of the Center for Continuing Education and Vocational Training.

By the 2017-2018 school year, seeing that Ms. Dung could not continue to pay the illegal amounts, Ms. Huong did not complete the procedures for paying overtime. At the same time, Ms. Huong sent many petitions to her superiors denouncing Ms. Dung's wrongdoings.

After considering the role of each individual in the case, the court sentenced Ms. Le Thi Dung to 5 years in prison and Ms. Nguyen Thi Huong to 2 years in prison but with a suspended sentence for the crime of "Abusing position and power while performing official duties". The verdict caused many mixed opinions in public opinion.

According to Vietnamnet