Three provincial officials in Lao Cai are in trouble after berating a local man for fixing a pothole without informing them.
On July 18, Thoa, a Lao Cai resident decided to take matters in his own hands and filled in a one-square-meter pothole that had existed on a highway in the neighborhood for two years, reports Thanh Nien.
“We put branches and bags in the hole to alert commuters but [local road authorities] removed them, threatening to reprimand us,” a local resident told Tuoi Tre. “When asked when it would be fixed, they said that there’s not enough funding.”
A few other neighbors noticed Thoa at work and joined in; one even took a photo of the good deed and posted it on his personal Facebook account. This received attention from people living in Lao Cai as well as Vietnamese netizens who lauded him for his action.
The next day, at home, he was confronted by three senior road management officials who questioned his motivation for fixing the hole and posting the photo on Facebook.
The controversial exchange was filmed and posted on social media. In the video, one official could be heard saying that the hole was small and didn’t affect traffic flow. "You've just killed us when you did this," she said.
In an effort to ease public furor, the Directorate for Roads of Vietnam released a statement condemning the officials for being “disrespectful”, reports Thanh Nien. The agency also suspended them for 15 days to carry out an internal investigation of the incident.
Regarding Thoa’s work, the directorate said that the resident’s road fixing was commendable and the officials’ visit was “totally unnecessary”.
