Clarifying information about a commune accountant winning the auction of 23 land lots in Quynh Luu district

Not eligible to participate in the auction

Nghe An Electronic Newspaper reported on July 10, 2023"Quynh Luu district does not recognize the auction results of 23 land lots for the accountant of Quynh Ba commune". The information clearly stated that after the land auction on June 20, 2023 at the People's Committee of Quynh Hung commune, the People's Committee of Quynh Luu district received a number of complaints with the content that Mr. Nguyen Van Trong - accountant of the People's Committee of Quynh Ba commune, is the younger brother of Mr. Nguyen Van Quy - Vice Chairman of the People's Committee of Quynh Luu district (Mr. Quy is the person who signed the decision approving the starting price of the land lots put up for auction), although not a subject participating in the auction, still voted to bid and was recognized by the auctioneer as the auction winner. After the incident, the People's Committee of Quynh Luu district stepped in to verify and did not recognize the auction results for the 23 land lots that Mr. Nguyen Van Trong participated in.

On the morning of July 11, Nghe An Newspaper reporters were present in Dong Quan area, hamlet 5, Quynh Hung commune (Quynh Luu). This area has been divided into 56 plots of land according to the planning to conduct a public auction on June 20.

According to our observations, this Dong Quan auction area has a quite nice location, located in the center of Quynh Hung Commune People's Committee, next to the Quynh Hung - Quynh Ngoc inter-commune road, opposite the commune stadium and not far from the local government headquarters. Currently, this area has been divided into 3 plots, separated by a spacious concrete road and a fairly synchronous power line system. Of which, from the direction of Quynh Hung Commune People's Committee to Quynh Ngoc, the first plot has 14 lots (there is 1 corner that has not been cleared); the second plot has 22 lots and the third plot has 20 lots. Particularly, the third plot has 20 lots, of which Mr. Nguyen Van Trong won 19 lots.

Although the Dong Quan auction land has not been leveled and is currently a fish pond, because the local government is concerned that the cost will increase and it will be difficult to attract buyers, but because of its beautiful location and well-built infrastructure, it is still considered a "golden" land in this locality. In fact, the starting price for a plot of land in this area is also quite high, the minimum is more than 687 million VND and the highest plot is more than 1.8 billion VND starting price.

After visiting the land, we continued to visit the headquarters of the People's Committee of Quynh Hung commune. Currently, the announcement and information about the auction of the Dong Quan area are still on the bulletin board of the People's Committee of Quynh Hung commune. The auction of 56 land lots in this area is carried out by Quang Cong Minh Joint Stock Auction Company (headquartered in Hoang Mai town). Previously, on May 30, 2023, the People's Committee of Quynh Luu district signed a contract to hire Quang Cong Minh Joint Stock Auction Company to conduct the auction of the above 56 residential land lots in Quynh Hung commune.

In Notice No. 04/2023/TB-QCM dated May 31, 2023, of Quang Cong Minh Joint Stock Auction Company, in the section "Cases not allowed to register to participate in the auction" also clearly states: "People working in the property auction organization; father, mother, wife, husband, children, brothers, sisters of the auctioneer conducting the auction; people who directly determine the starting price; father, mother, wife, husband, children, brothers, sisters of the person who directly determines the starting price".

After the incident of Mr. Nguyen Van Trong winning the auction of 23 land lots in Dong Quan area, many local people when asked also said that they heard this information. However, people were quite indifferent to the information, some people said that because they did not have money to participate in the auction, they did not care about the information of the auction, only when they heard many people talking about it did they know.

Mr. Tran Binh Trong - Chairman of Quynh Hung Commune People's Committee, a member of the monitoring team at the auction on June 20, said: Previously, Mr. Trong worked as an accountant at Quynh Hung Commune People's Committee, and since 2010, he has been working at Quynh Ba Commune. Regarding the Dong Quan auction area, this is one of the two areas that have been put up for public auction in the past in Quynh Hung Commune. Although there are only 56 lots, there have been more than 300 sets of documents participating in the auction. "Currently, the district has concluded that the auction results for 23 lots that Mr. Nguyen Van Trong participated in are not recognized. In the coming time, whether to re-auction or how to handle it will have to wait for the direction of the District People's Committee" - Mr. Trong shared.

How to handle problems that arise?

Returning to the story of the auction of the Dong Quan planning land area, on the day of the auction, these 56 plots of land had a total area of ​​11,467.70 m²put up for auction with a starting total value59,798,749,500VND. After 312 customers participated in the auction, 56 lots/56 lots were successfully auctioned (100% rate) with a total winning bid amount of85,620,500,000VND. The total difference between the winning bid price and the starting price is25,821,750,500copper (42.7%).

Currently, implementing the Conclusion Notice No. 258/TB-UBND dated July 6, 2023 on the Conclusion of the Chairman of the People's Committee of Quynh Luu district at the working session to give opinions on the handling of the auction results of 23 land lots in Quynh Hung commune. Accordingly, the People's Committee of the district does not recognize the auction results for the 23 land lots announced by the auctioneer and identifies Mr. Nguyen Van Trong as the auction winner due to violations of the provisions of law. Specifically, the provisions in Point b, Clause 4, Article 38 of the Law on Property Auction 2016; Point b, Clause 3, Article 8, Decision 12/2018/QD-UBND dated March 2, 2018 of the People's Committee of Nghe An province on promulgating regulations on auction of land use rights to allocate land with land use fees or lease land in Nghe An province.

The Chairman of the People's Committee of Quynh Luu district also assigned Quang Cong Minh Joint Stock Auction Company to urgently carry out procedures to handle 23 land lots that do not meet the conditions for recognition of auction results according to regulations and to conduct the re-auction process of the above land lots to ensure timeliness, objectivity, and compliance with legal regulations.

Obviously, Mr. Nguyen Van Trong, who is not eligible but still participates in the auction, disregards the provisions of the law, because more than anyone else, as an officer in charge of finance, Mr. Trong must understand and grasp the regulations. Not to mention, the announcement of the auction unit has also been made public for a long time. Mr. Nguyen Van Quy himself - Vice Chairman of the People's Committee of Quynh Luu District, who participated in the Supervisory Team as a representative of the People's Committee of the District, but did not discover that his younger brother participated in the auction is unacceptable.

Not to mention, not recognizing the auction results of 23 land lots actually causes many consequences, first of all, it is costly in terms of time and money when having to re-organize the auction. Second, will the re-auction of these 23 land lots ensure the same amount of money as the previous auction? Mr. Ho Huu Hung - Head of the Justice Department of Quynh Luu district, informed: In 2023, the People's Committee of Quynh Luu district strives to collect 250 billion VND from land auction proceeds, before the above auction took place, it had only collected 50 billion VND, if the auction results were added, it would only reach 50%. This is a good sign in the context of falling land prices, but then... "the joy was short-lived".

Finally, not recognizing the results will easily cause many related legal problems, especially when it is related to the issue of resolving the amount of money that Mr. Nguyen Van Trong deposited. "According to regulations, the amount of money that each individual participating in the auction must deposit is 20% of the starting value of the land lot. Currently, we are considering asking for opinions from the Department of Justice, even the Ministry of Justice to resolve this issue in the most accurate way," Mr. Hung added.