Individual financial liability for state compensation payouts confused

The instructions on state compensation defined in Inter-Circular 4 seems too vague and this will make it difficult to decide the exact amount that officials have to pay for their involvement.

A recent proposal by the Ministry of Finance that the People's Supreme Court to force officials involved in a miscarriage of justice that saw an innocent man in Binh Thuan Province convicted to pay compensation has received public support.

Nguyen Thanh Chan (centre) was released in 2013 after 10 years in prison.

In a document sent to the People's Supreme Court about the transfer of VND10 billion (USD440,000) from the state budget to the Binh Thuan Provincial People's Court to compensate Huynh Van Nen who was wrongly sentenced to prison, the ministry said that the supreme court should be responsible for getting those involved in this case to repay the sum following the Law on State Compensation Liability and Inter-Circular 4.

However the instructions on compensation defined in Inter-Circular 4 seems too vague and this will make it difficult to decide the exact amount that staff have to pay for their involvement.

According to Inter-Circular 4, if the compensation paid to the victims is below VND100 million (USD4,394), the official held responsible will have to pay between his three to twelve-month salary. If the compensation paid is from VND100 to VND 500 million, then the official will have to pay 12 to 24 months of their salary. And if the compensation is above VND500 million, the staff would be responsible for paying 24 to 36-months of salary.

This wide variance may make it difficult to specify the level. And in most cases the money recovered would be very small compared to the compensation that the state budget pay out.

In Huynh Van Nen case, if the average monthly salary of each staff is VND7 million (USD308), then the state would recover only 7x36=252 million (USD11,072) a person, which is too little compared to the USD440,000 that the state had paid out.

It is thought that we should have clearer instructions for this compensation regulations. For example, counting on the percentage that people were held responsible will pay back the state budget after the state compensates to the victims.

Besides Nen's case, the state recently paid VND7.2 billion (USD317,000) to Nguyen Thanh Chan in Bac Giang Province, and VND22.9 billion (USD1.02 million) to Luong Ngoc Phi in Thai Binh Province.

Public complaints have centred on the huge amount of wasted money having to be paid out in compensation claims due to individuals.