Word: cashed
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...Vietnam's stimulus program pales in comparison to the $787-billion package approved by U.S. lawmakers last week, but the country is doing what it can to jumpstart its economy. The cash giveaway followed November's announcement of a plan to spend $1 billion to subsidize interest rates for businesses and to lower taxes in order to boost investment and create jobs...
...most important celebration, Tet, the Vietnamese New Year. Tet is Vietnam's equivalent of Christmas; it's a holiday of family gatherings and lavish spending on gifts. But this year, a time for giving turned out to be a time for taking. It appears that many of the cash handouts were pocketed by corrupt local officials.(See pictures from the 1979 border war between Vietnam and China...
...unusual giveaway, Vietnamese living below the poverty line (defined by the government as those earning less than $15 a month) qualified to receive a gift of 200,000 Vietnamese dong, or about $12. Families were entitled to a maximum of $57. Though it may seem a paltry sum, the cash was a windfall for Vietnam's 10 million poorest. It was a way of helping people truly suffering from the economic crisis and a series of natural disasters that hit the country last year, says Ngo Truong Thi, the deputy director of social welfare at the Ministry of Labor, Invalids...
...Still, public perception of how well the government is handling the crisis is crucially important. Vu Thanh Tu Anh, director of research at the Fulbright Economics Teaching Program in Ho Chi Minh City, says the cash payments were clearly made for political, not just economic, reasons. "It's very important for the government to be seen as doing something," he says. "The political pressure is huge...
...never be known how much of the cash meant for the poor has been diverted. One official from Lam Dong Province in central Vietnam was arrested last week, and dozens of others across the country have been demoted or sacked due to the scandal. Hundreds of provincial-level investigations are ongoing...