HCM City (VNA)  - Government workers and civil servants in HoChi Minh City asked for higher salaries in a meeting held by the city People’sCouncil on January 21 to listen to their voters’ opinions.

Tran Thanh Tu of the Thi Nghe SocialWelfare Centre for Orphans with Disabilities complained that the incomes of hiscentre’s staff are too low though they do many tasks like taking care ofchildren with severe disabilities who cannot do anything by themselves.

Last year, 40 workers quit, he said, addingthat the city should ensure a reasonable income for them.

Le Hong Hanh of the Tam Binh Social WelfareChildren Centre said the centre has nearly 200 orphaned and disabled children.

Most of them are ill or severelymalnourished and so the centre needs doctors, but it has been difficult to hiredoctors for many years because of the low salaries, she said.

Staff from the Food Safety Management Boardand the Husbandry and Animal Health Division and teachers from many schoolsalso complained about their low incomes.

Le Van Lam, deputy director of theDepartment of Home Affairs, said the Department of Labour, Invalids, and SocialAffairs, which is in charge of managing social welfare centres, should reviewthe salaries of centre workers and make recommendations for hikes to hisdepartment so that it could seek approval from the People’s Committee.

The city is considering raising salariesunder a roadmap after the National Assembly passed a resolution on pilotingspecial mechanisms and policies for the city’s development, including thoserelated to the incomes of civil servants and public employees, he said.

Loans for buying house

The Government workers also called foramending policies to increase the loan amounts for them to buy houses.

Pham Bao Nam of the Inspectorate said theyonly get a maximum loan of 500 million VND (22,026 USD) from the HCM CityHousing Development Fund, too little to buy a house or apartment.

Nguyen Ngoc Thach, director of the HCM CityHousing Development Fund, admitted that the sum is low and suggested that thePeople’s Committee should increase it to 600 million VND.

People’s Council chairwoman Nguyen ThiQuyet Tam said relevant agencies should study and make recommendations forvarious levels of loans because the financial needs are not uniform.

Not all could be provided the same amountof 500 million VND or 600 million VND, she said.

A Department of Construction official saidthe city also has policies for preferential housing loans for the publicemployees.

Nguyen Quoc Toan, chairman of the tradeunion at People’s Hospital 115, said the low-priced social housing available inthe city is too little to meet demand.

There is too much red tape involved ingetting a loan from the fund, he lamented.

For instance, people who want a loan needto have their managers certifying they do not own a house, but it is hard forpeople to know for sure about their subordinates’ assets, he said.

Thạch said IT should be used to managehousing in the city and a database should be set up.

The meeting also heard complaints abouturban management and food safety. - VNA