Ho Chi Minh City Department of Education and Training must compensate a principal

Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee has just issued Decision 4422 on resolving the second complaint of Ms. Nguyen Thi Nha Trang, former Principal of Vinh Loc High School, Binh Tan District.

According to the decision of the City People's Committee, based on the results of the complaint settlement, Ms. Nguyen Thi Nha Trang was appointed as principal of Vinh Loc High School from June 26, 2017, for a term of 5 years.

On April 27, 2022, the Department of Education and Training issued Conclusion No. 1291/KL-SGDĐT on the conclusion of a surprise inspection of Nguyen Vinh Loc High School. Accordingly, it was determined that Ms. Nguyen Thi Nha Trang had a number of violations in management and operation at the school (at the time of discovering the disciplinary violation).

According to the inspection conclusion, at the above time, in the financial and asset management work at Vinh Loc High School in the 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 school years, the school had mobilized sponsorship, but the sponsorship mobilization plan had not been approved by the Department of Education and Training.

In the 2018-2019, 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 school years, the total amount of money remaining from the previous period and collected during the period was more than 672 million VND, the total amount of money spent for all 3 school years was more than 332 million VND, the remaining amount calculated as of the 2020-2021 school year was more than 127 million VND. The school used the funding to pay for security, order, lunch breaks, and hygiene, which was not in accordance with the provisions of Clause 2, Article 3 of Circular 16 of 2018 of the Ministry of Education and Training, according to the inspection conclusion of the Department of Education and Training of the Department of Education and Training of Ho Chi Minh City.

According to the inspection conclusion, the school used the funds of the parents' representative board for some contents that did not directly serve the activities of the parents' representative board such as: Training for the positions of secretary and deputy secretary, buying union membership books, training in political theory lessons for union members, paying for commemorative medals and expenses to support educational activities... which are not in accordance with the regulations in Circular No. 55 of 2011 issued by the Ministry of Education and Training on the Charter of the parents' representative board.

The Inspectorate of the Department of Education and Training requested the school to recover the amount of sponsorship money spent in violation of regulations; to recover and refund the amount of money spent incorrectly from the operating budget of the parent-teacher association from the school year in the 3 school years mentioned above. Thus, the school must refund the parent-teacher association a total of 258,493,900 VND.

The Department of Education and Training held a review meeting, established a disciplinary council, and recommended disciplinary action against Ms. Nguyen Thi Nha Trang, Principal of Vinh Loc High School.

Department of Education issues late disciplinary decision

On October 6, 2022 (after 162 days from the time of discovering the disciplinary violation), the Department of Education and Training issued Decision No. 2494/QD-SGDĐT on disciplinary action against Ms. Nguyen Thi Nha Trang in the form of reprimand.

In Decision No. 4422 of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee, it is stated that, based on Clause 1, Article 5 of Decree No. 112/2020/ND-CP, the disciplinary action period for cadres and civil servants is the period from the time of discovering the disciplinary violation of cadres and civil servants until the decision on disciplinary action by the competent agency or organization is issued, not exceeding 90 days; in cases where the case has complicated circumstances requiring time for inspection and examination to verify and clarify, the disciplinary action period may be extended but not exceeding 150 days.

Thus, the Department of Education and Training's issuance of Decision No. 2494/QD-SGDĐT to handle disciplinary action after 162 days from the time of detecting the violation is late and does not ensure the correct disciplinary action deadline.

Regarding the determination of violations for disciplinary action, the People's Committee of Ho Chi Minh City also concluded that the Department of Education and Training's decision to issue a disciplinary action against Ms. Nguyen Thi Nha Trang without clearly identifying each violation to apply the disciplinary action was not in accordance with regulations.

Claim for damages against principal

Also according to the decision of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee, on May 3, 2024, the Director of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Home Affairs chaired a dialogue session to resolve the petition with the participation of representatives of the Department of Education and Training and Ms. Nguyen Thi Nha Trang.

As a result, Ms. Nguyen Thi Nha Trang and the representative of the Department of Education and Training agreed on the content of the error in the disciplinary process applied to civil servants, and decided to discipline the civil servant according to the verification content of the Department of Home Affairs.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Nha Trang still maintains her second appeal request against Decision No. 2494/QD-SGDĐT dated October 6, 2022 of the Director of the Department of Education and Training regarding her disciplinary action.

The Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee has requested the Director of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Education and Training to cancel Decision No. 374/QD-SGDĐT dated February 23, 2023 on resolving the first complaint, and at the same time withdraw Decision No. 2494/QD-SGDĐT dated October 6, 2022 of the Director of the Department of Education and Training on disciplining Ms. Nguyen Thi Nha Trang.

The Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee assigned the Department of Education and Training to organize the implementation of the decision, restore the legitimate rights and interests, and compensate for damages (if any) for Ms. Nguyen Thi Nha Trang, former Principal of Vinh Loc High School, and at the same time report the results to the Chairman of the City People's Committee and the Ho Chi Minh City Inspectorate.

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