3,000 billion VND advanced to support fishermen in 4 provinces facingthe Formosa environmental incident

The Deputy Minister said that the entire policy proposed by parties to support fishermen in 4 provinces facing the environmental incident caused by Hung Nghiep Formosa Ha TinhSteel Limited Companyhas been approved by the Prime Minister.

Until now, the Ministry of Finance has advanced 3,000 billion vnd and transferred to the offices deploying these solutions directly, QuangBinh province has received the largest amount which is 1,100 billion vnd.

Providing more information, Mr. Dao Xuan Tue – the Deputy Director General of the State Budget Department, MOF, said: On the basis of the proposals of the related ministries, the Prime Minister issued Decision No.1880/QD-TTg dated September 29th, 2016 on the norms of compensation for damage to people in the provinces of Ha Tinh, QuangBinh, Quang Tri, and ThuaThien - Hue caused by the marine environmental incident.

To implement this Decision, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment has transferred the money to the Ministry of Finance to transfer to provinces.

On October 3rd,2016 the Ministry of Financesent the announcement of transferring the money to the relevant offices and on October 4th, the Ministry also sent the official dispatch to 4 provinces to guide the management, use, reporting and settlement of funds for compensation for damage caused by the marine environmental incident.

About the process of receiving, managing and using the compensation money, Mr. Tue said: the Ministry of Finance, namely the State Budget Department, shall open a special-purposedeposit account in USD and VND at the Exchange Department - the State Treasury to receive, manage and use the money compensated by Formosa Ha Tinh.

The State Budget Department would establish orders for payment and sendthem tothe State Treasury to transfer the money to the special-purpose deposit account of the Department of Finance at the State Treasury in the provinces of Ha Tinh, QuangBinh, Quang Tri and ThuaThien - Hue. "Thus, the money used to pay for compensation is managed by a separate account which is completely separate from the State budget, so themanagement and use will be fully transparent." –affirmed Mr. Tue.

The State Treasury will send detailed instructions to the Treasury of the 4 provincesto implement the solutions.

Answering reporters about the solutions to ensure transparency in the process of inspecting, reviewing, evaluating and approving the objects and value to compensatefordamage, the representative of the State Budget Department shared: On the basis of the appraisal reports from the People's Committees of Communes on the damage,the People's Committeesof Districts shall evaluate and approve the people and damage needed to compensate with a detailed list attached, and sendthe aggregated reports to the People's Committees of Provinces.

The professional agencies under the People's Committeesof Provinces shall chair and coordinate with relevant agencies to inspect, review, evaluate and aggregatethe compensation people and damage before submitting to the People's Committees of Provincesto be approved and reported to the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

Based on the evaluation of the 2 Ministries, the plan to allocate the money for compensation for damage fromthe marine environmental incident for each province will be submitted to the Prime Minister to be approved and implemented.

While the reports from the provinces are pending, the Ministry of Finance has asked the Prime Minister to advance the money to provinces to implement the payments.

Guiding the management and use ofthe moneythat Formosa Ha Tinh Limited Company has compensated, the Ministry of Finance interpreted: The payment of the money to compensate for damages to the people is done by bank transfer (for individuals who have bank accounts) or by cash. When the payment is done, the list needs to be signed by the person receiving the money.

At 4 p.m., October 11th, the Deputy Prime Minister Truong HoaBinh hosted a meeting with the ministries on this issue.