VietNamNet Bridge – Saying that the violations at the four public companies are very serious, the authorities of HCM City have suspended the directors and chairs of these firms for investigation.

HCMC: Wages of bosses of SOEs 41 times higher than employees

Mr. Tran Thien Ha, Director of the HCM City Park and Green Trees Company.

On Wednesday, September 4, the suspension decisions were issued by the HCM City Party Committee and People’s Committee for eight senior officials of the four public companies who were paid billion dong of salary in 2012.

The officials consist of the director and chairman of the Urban Drainage Company, the director and chairman of the Public Lighting Company, the director and chairman of the Saigon Public Transport Works and the director and chairman of the HCM City Park and Green Trees Company.

In addition, the violations of deputy directors, chief accountants and all other officials of these companies must be considered and reported to the city leaders before September 12.

The city authorities said that the four public companies made violations that caused "very serious" consequences, such as: breaking the Labor Code in signing labor contracts to deprive the rights of workers, paying huge salary for business leaders, the numbers of workers are much lower than the reported figures, etc.

These officials are also said to have violated the regulations on Party membership.

Mr. Tran Thien Ha, Director of the HCM City Park and Green Trees Company and Mr. Le Thanh Son, Director of the Urban Drainage Company told reporters on Wednesday that they had received the suspension decision in the afternoon of the day. "I do not know what to say. I accept the order of the committee," said Ha.

The HCM City authorities also instructed relevant bodies to recover the wrong pay for these officials and to set up four working groups to conduct a comprehensive inspection at all public companies in the city. The inspection will be completed by the end of September.

Earlier, HCM City inspectors said that the four public companies paid very high salary to their leaders, which was dozen times higher than that of the workers. The highest salary belongs to the Director of the Urban Drainage Company with VND2.6 billion ($120,000) per year.

In addition, the four companies were also determined to have violated the Labor Code when hundreds of workers who were qualified for indefinite labor contracts but they only had short-term contracts.

Nam Hai