Social insurance cheats face stringent checks

HCM CITY (VNS)— The HCM City Department of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs will continue to work closely with the city Social Insurance Agency to monitor companies to ensure they do not flout social insurance rules.

Many firms have been found violating the rules, including failure to pay social insurance premiums for their employees and handing over the social insurance book to employees who quit.

At a meeting held in HCM City yesterday, Huynh Tan Dung, head of the department's Inspectorate, said erring firms had been fined nearly VND2 billion (US$95,238) so far this year.

Besides, the agency had taken legal action against 266 companies that delayed payment of premiums of VND133.9 billion ($6.3 million) by more than three months this year.

But it had recovered only VND38.9 billion ($1.9 million) so far.

There have been 88 worker strikes this year over failure to pay the premiums, according to the labour department. Dung said the economic difficulties of recent months caused an upward spiral in the incidence of violations.

Some companies that failed to pay in time did so because of genuine financial difficulties, he said, adding that they had sought more time.

The Inspectorate and the labour department were discussing ways to help them, he said.

But Nguyen Van Xe, deputy head of the department, said extending the time given to pay premiums was not feasible because this would affect employees' benefits.

The department and agency should instead consider providing these companies with loans at low interest rates, he said.

Dung said a new kind of fraud had been discovered recently involving firms and employees colluding to make fake social insurance claims. Most of these firms were situated in Districts 2, 9, and Thu Duc, he said. — VNS