Prosecution of the Head of the District Agriculture Department related to violations in land management and use

The Investigation Police Agency of Trieu Phong District Police, Quang Tri Province has just issued a decision to prosecute and ban Mr. Vo Ngoc Khoa, Head of the Department of Agriculture of Trieu Phong District, and 2 officials related to violations in land management and use, and use of financial resources when he was Chairman of the People's Committee of Trieu Dai Commune, Trieu Phong District.

Lieutenant Colonel Tran Minh Chu, Deputy Chief of Police of Trieu Phong District, Quang Tri Province, said that Mr. Vo Ngoc Khoa was prosecuted for the crime of "abuse of power while performing official duties" related to violations that occurred at the People's Committee of Trieu Dai Commune. In addition, two other officials were also prosecuted: Mr. Tran Vong, a land official of the People's Committee of Trieu Dai Commune, and Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Thoan, Head of Dai Hao Village, Trieu Dai Commune, Trieu Phong District.

During his tenure as Party Secretary and Chairman of the People's Committee of Trieu Dai Commune, Trieu Phong District, Mr. Vo Ngoc Khoa committed violations in land management and financial revenue and expenditure with the amount of billions of dong. This case was investigated by the authorities and concluded that there were violations.

Specifically, during the period 2013-2017, Mr. Vo Ngoc Khoa allocated residential land, business land, rented kiosks at Thuan market and collected money from people waiting for land allocation procedures in violation of the provisions of the Land Law.

The amount of money violated was nearly 4 billion VND, left off the books and used against regulations. In addition, Mr. Khoa also agreed to let Dai Hao village, Trieu Dai commune allocate land in the village and collect money against the law on land and financial management with an amount of nearly 1.5 billion VND.

In March 2018, Mr. Vo Ngoc Khoa was appointed as Head of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Trieu Phong district when the incident was discovered due to complaints from the people.

According to Lieutenant Colonel Tran Minh Chu, Deputy Chief of Trieu Phong District Police, Mr. Khoa divided the land into lots, and any local people who wanted to take that lot had to pay 30 million VND, leaving it to build new rural roads and electricity. But the land allocation is only the right of the Chairman of the District People's Committee, the commune chairman is not correct.

“When Mr. Khoa became the head of the district’s Agriculture Department, people who did not have land certificates filed lawsuits. The agency is investigating, and at present it has not been proven whether Mr. Khoa embezzled money in this matter. Therefore, the police agency prosecuted him for “abuse of power in the performance of official duties” but could not prosecute him for embezzlement or other crimes,” said Lieutenant Colonel Tran Minh Chu./.