Lesson 1: Loose land management and administrative management

(Baonghean) - 3/5 localities reached the finish line in handing over the National Highway 1A site on April 15 with the total route length handed over being 73.3 km/73.8 km, reaching 99.3%. This result is thanks to the efforts of the Party Committee, the government and the consensus, support, and sacrifice of personal interests for the common benefit of the people. However, through the clearance of National Highway 1A, localities also need to draw lessons in land management, administrative management, and smooth coordination in propaganda and implementation...

A series of violations stemming from laxity and irresponsibility in land management by authorities at all levels (mainly at the commune level) is an issue that needs attention in the work of clearing land for National Highway 1A. That is also one of the reasons leading to the complexity in determining the origin of land, an excuse for some households to take advantage of the government to "take advantage" of it for personal gain. Some people even prevent the Land Clearance Council from measuring, inventorying and pricing, refuse to accept compensation support to sign documents to hand over the land, or have received money but re-encroach, have demands for benefits that exceed the State's regulations... causing many difficulties in the work of propaganda and mobilization for land handover.

A typical example is the mass issuance of red books within the PMU1 boundary in the period 1995 - 2000 in Nghi Loc, Dien Chau, Quynh Luu districts... violating the planning regulations in Article 7, Decree No. 203-HDBT dated December 21, 1982 of the Council of Ministers (now the Government) on promulgating the Road Protection Regulations (stipulating that the road boundary at this time is 20m from the foot of the embankment or the top edge of the cut road). It is regrettable that some localities have not kept complete records related to land procedures over the periods. For example, in Quynh Van (Quynh Luu), there were 333/394 households that were granted red books in the traffic safety corridor during the period 1995 - 1999, but the commune land officer (working from 1997 to present) could only present the records of 17 land books and innocently asserted, "I only made 17 books, excluding the traffic safety corridor boundary according to regulations"???

Illegal houses built before 1993 without documents proving the origin of the land in Quynh Thien ward, Hoang Mai town. (Photo taken on April 9, 2014).

Like Quynh Van commune, Quynh Giang has 172 households with red books that have been granted a part of the area within the PMU1 boundary corridor (granted the whole plot) and allowed households to use that land without clearly noting that it is vacant land. The shortcomings in land management of Quynh Giang commune have led to complaints from people, especially in the He Lan and Dong Lo areas, forcing the district inspectorate to intervene to investigate and verify. Inspection conclusion No. 1131/KL-UBND dated June 29, 2012 of Quynh Luu District People's Committee shows that: On March 15, 1992, Quynh Luu District People's Committee issued Notice No. 05/TB/UB on granting residential land to people in 1992 - 1993, allowing Quynh Giang commune to grant an area of ​​6,800m2 of residential land and 800m2 of internal traffic land to 40 households. The Commune People's Committee has allocated each household 260m2 of land from the edge of National Highway 1A to the rice fields (East), including 200m2 of residential land and 60m2 of garden land. The width of each plot is 6.5m and the length of each plot is 40m.

Through checking the records and books at the commune and the relevant people, it is found that Quynh Giang commune currently does not have records of land allocation and land allocation from the commune to households. According to the report of the Commune People's Committee, the plot division plan established by the Commune People's Committee was not approved by the District People's Committee and is now lost and cannot be kept. The Dong Lo area is in a similar situation. Thus, the Quynh Giang Commune People's Committee's self-divided plots and plotted the plots for the people is beyond its authority, violating Point C, Clause 4, Article 13, Land Law 1998 and Clause D, Article 23, Land Law 1993 which stipulates that "The District People's Committee allocates rural residential land to people for housing according to the plan approved by the People's Committee of the province, centrally-run city and equivalent administrative unit". At the time of land allocation to households in 1990 - 1993, the Commune People's Committee allocated land from the eastern edge of National Highway 1A, which violated the provisions of Article 7, Decree No. 203-HDBT dated December 21, 1982 of the Council of Ministers (now the Government) on promulgating the Road Protection Regulations because the road boundary at this time was 20m from the foot of the embankment or the top of the dug road...

Land use right certificate issued in 1996 to Mr. Nguyen Van Thai's household in hamlet 6, Quynh Van commune (Quynh Luu) was issued close to the foot of the road, excluding airspace.

Land use right certificate issued in 1996 to Mr. Nguyen Van Thai's household in hamlet 6, Quynh Van commune (Quynh Luu) was issued close to the foot of the road, excluding airspace.

Also because of the irresponsibility in land management, it leads to the phenomenon of selling, granting, and leasing land without authority, such as the case that happened to 22 households of the Brick Enterprise in Mai Hung Ward (Hoang Mai Town). The land they were living on was previously a collective housing area under the management of Trung Do Brick Enterprise, but then the brick enterprise arbitrarily divided plots without authority for workers to live in since 1993 without any documents proving that they had paid land use fees, but the local government still did not have any comments, leading to the fact that when implementing the project to upgrade and expand National Highway 1A, these households requested compensation for land and assets on the land. Or the case of the Tea Factory in Hamlet 14, Nghi Kim Commune, which borrowed land from Nghi Kim Commune since 1987 for households participating in service business. Over time, these households have built solid houses. Now, they require 100% compensation for the value of assets on the land, making it difficult for the local government to implement. The case of 18 tents built within the PMU1 boundary in Nghi Yen (Nghi Loc) and some tents in Nghi Lien (Vinh City) also caused difficulties in site clearance for the same reason, affecting the construction progress.

In reality, many problems have arisen from the lax management of local authorities. For example, 18 households illegally built on non-agricultural land in Block 10, Quynh Thien (Hoang Mai Town). According to Mr. Nguyen Ba Su - Chairman of Quynh Thien Ward People's Committee, when the incident occurred (in 2009), the local government had issued a document suspending the construction but the households refused to sign it. However, what is worth mentioning is that the government did not handle it thoroughly but let it persist for a long time, leading to "one mistake giving rise to another", causing difficulties for the work of clearing the National Highway 1A. Of these 18 households, 6 are citizens of Hamlet 10 - Quynh Loc (formerly Quynh Luu) who migrated to this area in 1987 to reclaim the land and have been living stably since then, without any documents proving the origin of their land. Many households even came later in the form of buying and selling, transferring through many owners with only handwritten papers. Up to now, they have requested to be arranged for resettlement or compensated according to the area of ​​garden land, but the government "has no basis for approval".

Also in Quynh Thien ward, block 6, there are cases of households buying land, building houses and living stably on National Highway 1A from 1998 until now still do not have red books. The reason given by the people is because "before, we bought land and only deducted 13.5m of free space, but now the government requires that when making a red book, we must deduct 27m of free space, the land area is narrowed, so we do not do it". Regarding this issue, Mr. Le Sy Chien - Vice Chairman of the Town People's Committee said: "Standardizing administrative procedures on land, including granting Land Use Rights Certificates to households along National Highway 1A in the town area, is something that needs to be done in the near future. According to regulations, if any household has less than 50 square meters of land after deducting airspace, they will be arranged for resettlement, but to do that, it takes time. In the immediate future, we will propagate and mobilize people to clearly understand the regulations in the Land Law and not build illegally on airspace corridors."

Along with the laxity in land management is the laxity in population management and administrative management. According to Ms. Ho Thi Lan, 1 of 6 households living spontaneously and illegally in non-agricultural land in block 10, Quynh Thien ward (Hoang Mai town): "We have lived here for 4 generations without being under the administrative management of any locality. Only in the past 2 years has the Quynh Thien government collected non-agricultural land tax, and administrative procedures such as birth certificates for children and grandchildren... are all handled by Quynh Loc commune"???.

As for the 80 households in "street hamlet one" in Dien Truong commune, Dien Chau district, although they have lived in the area for more than 20 years, this hamlet has not yet had its administrative boundaries established. That is why, although these households are adjacent to each other on the same road, some households belong to hamlet 3, some households belong to hamlet 9, some households belong to hamlet 10. The representative of the local government, Mr. Le Hong Nghia - Chairman of the People's Committee of Dien Truong commune, explained that, in order to establish an administrative hamlet boundary for districts in the delta region, there must be at least 200 households living there. In addition, there are many other conditions that "street hamlet one" does not yet meet, plus the procedure for establishing a hamlet is complicated through many stages, so up to now, the hamlet has not been established. That's why some households, although living in "street one hamlet", are still under the administrative management of the old hamlet, while households that are citizens from other localities, after registering their household registration in Dien Truong, are "shared living" in adjacent hamlets.

For the past 20 years, the local government has allowed the above situation to exist, despite knowing that the complexity and makeshift nature of the situation has caused difficulties in managing population records and in propagating and mobilizing the implementation of the State's policies and guidelines for households in "street one hamlets". And this has been clearly demonstrated in the handover of land to implement the Project to Upgrade and Expand National Highway 1A.

To resolve the problems in site clearance due to the consequences of laxity in land management when the deadline for handover was approaching, the Provincial People's Committee had to issue Notice No. 147/TB.UBND-GT dated April 3, 2014, which provided specific solutions such as: Agreeing to compensate and support garden land in the same plot of land (except for the area of ​​PMU1 boundary corridor) for 22 households in Quynh Thien ward, Hoang Mai town, for which the Brick Enterprise granted land without authority; for cases where the People's Committee of Quynh Luu district had granted land use right certificates in the areas of Quynh Van and Quynh Giang communes located in the cleared corridor of the PMU1 Project (granted in violation of regulations), the District People's Committee was assigned to organize the recovery to grant land use right certificates in accordance with regulations; and to propagate and mobilize people to hand over the site. After handover and inspection, if there is a decision to fully prove the invoices and documents that people paid for the land purchase in the past, the amount of money paid corresponding to the above land area and interest calculated from the time of payment will be refunded to the households.

Through this, authorities at all levels need to learn lessons in land management, strictly review and clarify the responsibilities of each unit and individual in the issuance and management of land leading to previous mistakes, even though it was a "transitional period". And the current government cannot blame the previous government to avoid responsibility or handle it in a tongue-in-cheek manner, so that "mistakes are piled on top of mistakes". For example, the current government should not wait until there is a project to upgrade and expand National Highway 1A to deal with the consequences by re-issuing the current status map, withdrawing and re-issuing new land use rights certificates in accordance with the current Land Law. And, it must take a reluctant action to resolve the "hot land" situation, by refunding the land purchase price, both principal and interest, to households with Land Use Rights Certificates including the corridor area.

Among the causes of delay in handing over the site are the lack of determination, coordination, and close understanding of the situation, and the lack of synchronization in mobilization and propaganda of the authorities at all levels. Because the site clearance work was deployed from the beginning of 2012, some localities by the end of 2013 were still sluggish, and had not yet taken the initiative in a decisive and synchronous manner.

By the time of the withdrawal after the announcement 147 on the implementation of the conclusion of the Provincial People's Committee Chairman, most localities have simultaneously deployed working groups to work day and night to carry out propaganda and mobilization. Typically, in the communes of Quynh Giang - Quynh Luu, Quynh Thien - Hoang Mai, Nghi Long - Nghi Loc, by the time of the withdrawal in the communes, working groups have been established to review and classify subjects for mobilization, and at the same time explain policies and guidelines to individual cases that deliberately request documents and legal procedures to slow down the progress of site handover. If this work had been carried out right from the time of the Provincial People's Committee's official dispatch requesting site handover on schedule on March 31 for sites not arranged for resettlement and April 30 for sites that must be arranged for resettlement, then authorities at all levels would not have to "sweat and cry" for each individual household to mobilize and propagate as in the past.

The lesson learned is not to wait until "the water reaches your feet before jumping". Because the reality of the work of clearing the National Highway 1A shows that solving the consequences of "a time of childishness and mutual benefit" not only causes many difficulties and complications in mobilizing and propagating for people to comply with the State's policies and guidelines but also causes consequences that are difficult to measure. That is the loss of trust among the masses in the Party Committee and the government, and the loss of trust in the State's policies and guidelines. Therefore, what is inadequate in land management and administrative procedure management needs to be reviewed and resolved thoroughly, not waiting until there is a project to frantically ask for mechanisms, apply policies, take shortcuts, be flexible and creative, to solve the "history left behind" problem. And to solve the shortcomings at the root, the most important thing in the field related to land and administrative management is to choose the right people and assign the right tasks; Training staff to do advisory work, land management, and administration that are both red, professional, dedicated, and knowledgeable, especially for commune-level land officials, should not be arranged in the style of "hot hands, hot ears".

* According to the summary, by the end of April 23, 47/59 remaining households in Quynh Van (Quynh Luu) had handed over the site. Thus, up to now, Quynh Luu has only 0.1 km/12.25 km of National Highway 1A passing through the district that has not been handed over the site. It is expected that the remaining 12 households will hand over the site today (April 24).

* In Dien Chau, there is only 100m of land remaining, passing through 7 households in Dien Ngoc commune and 6 households in Dien Hong commune. Currently, the Compensation Council is quickly resolving complaints from households about the request for compensation for land within the PMU1 boundary; at the same time, continuing to propagate and mobilize households to hand over the land to the construction unit.

PV

PV Group