Ms. Pham Thi Ha is working in a public secondary school located in Da Nang City. When building the internal spending regulations, the school has been using the Welfare fund to pay monthly phone service charges of the principal, vice principal and the accountant at VND 200,000/ per person and provide the accountant with financial support at VND 500.000 per month. Ms. Ha would like to ask whether this spending is against the law or not.  

Regarding this issue, the Ministry of Finance gives the following opinions:

Pursuant to Clause 4, Article 20 of Decree No 43/2006/NĐ-CP dated on April, 25 2006 on providing for the right to autonomy and self-responsibility for task performance, organizational apparatus, payroll and finance of public non-business units:

 “The welfare fund shall be used for construction, repair of welfare works, expenditures on welfare activities of units' labor collectives; for the provision of extraordinary difficulty allowances for employees, including those who retire or cease working due to the loss of working capacity; and additional payment to employees on the payroll who lose their jobs due to payroll streamlining. The heads of units shall decide on the use of this fund according to their internal spending regulations.”

Pursuant to the provision above, it is against the law to allocate welfare fund to pay monthly phone service charges of the principal, vice principal and the accountant at VND 200,000 / per person and provide the accountant with financial support at VND 500.000 per month.

Subjects are entitled to pay telephone charges:

Point d, Appendix No. 01 of Circular No. 71/2006 / TT-BTC of August 9, 2006 of the Ministry of Finance guiding the implementation of Decree No. 43/2006 / ND-CP guiding the contents of using phones when Establish internal spending regulations as follows:

In case of ineligibility to equip landline telephones at private houses and mobile phones pursuant to the above provisions, but in practice, deeming it necessary to serve general jobs, the heads of units may expand the subjects who are granted money to pay for using telephone charges appropriately (separate amount for buying phone, installation and connecting networks must be paid by individuals).

For non-business units which self-guarantee operating costs, non-business units shall themselves cover part of operation expenses: The maximum payment level for telephone use charges shall not exceed VND 200,000 / machine / month for electricity. fixed telephone at home and VND 400,000 / phone / month for mobile phones;

Non-business units funded by the operating budget: The maximum level of payment for telephone use charges shall not exceed VND 100,000 / machine / month for fixed-line phones at private houses and VND 200,000 / machine / month for with mobile phone.

According to Ms. Ha, her unit receives 100% financial support from the state.  Pursuant to the above provisions, when developing internal spending regulations, the heads of units may expand the subjects to be provided with money for payment of telephone use charges.

The maximum charge level for using mobile phones shall not exceed VND 100,000 / machine / month for landline telephones at private houses and VND 200,000 / machine / month for mobile phones.