Laxity in land management and red book issuance

(Baonghean) -On November 26, Vinh City Police temporarily detained Vo Dinh Tung, former officer of the Vinh City Urban Management Department; Nguyen Viet Trieu, cadastral officer of Hung Dong Commune and Nguyen Dinh Hai, former cadastral officer of Cua Lo Town for making fake documents to issue land titles in Vinh City. Also during this time, many victims reported a number of people who specialized in swindling money by mortgaging land titles, fake signatures, fake seals but real cover forms...

Wards and communes do whatever they want

Talking to Nghe An Newspaper reporter about the case of Nguyen Viet Trieu (born in 1980), a cadastral officer of Hung Dong commune, regarding the information that he was recently detained by the police for investigation, Mr. Nguyen Xuan Quang - Vice Chairman of Hung Dong Commune People's Committee - Vinh City said: "Trieu is a civil servant under the management of Hung Dong Commune People's Committee, but the Commune People's Committee has not received any notice from the authorities about the above detention. On November 28, Trieu did not go to work, but last Friday he went to work as usual. Before returning to work in Hung Dong commune, Trieu was a cadastral officer of Quan Bau ward. We confirm that the incident is not related to our commune but related to Quan Bau ward."

Meeting Mr. Nguyen Dinh Ngoc - Chairman of Quan Bau Ward People's Committee, Mr. Ngoc said: Nguyen Viet Trieu was involved in falsifying documents of 3 land lots to get the cover, which are land lot 447, map sheet 22, issued to Tran Van Dai, Dien Thi Thuy, land lot 445, map sheet 22 issued to Tran Thanh Son on April 10, 2008 and land lot 446, map sheet 22 issued to Nguyen Dinh Dung, the cover was issued by the City People's Committee on the same day April 10, 2008, all in Yen Hoa block, Quan Bau ward.

"These three plots of land were brought to Trieu by Nguyen Dinh Hai (former cadastral officer of Cua Lo - PV), and Trieu presented them. I based on the approved planning of the ward as residential land, I told Trieu that there was a lack of "excerpts", Trieu told Hai, and Hai hired someone to make "excerpts". All the documents were old documents certified by Hung Dong, I only signed the extract and asked the city to issue a cover for them" - Mr. Nguyen Dinh Ngoc said.

According to the information we have learned, the 3 plots of land mentioned above are agricultural land, land that has not been assigned to anyone for use, managed by Quan Bau ward, but were confirmed by Quan Bau ward, requesting Vinh City to issue land certificates to individuals. Thus, just signing the "extract" of the Chairman of Quan Bau ward People's Committee is not simple to "complete the procedure". It is known that after arresting Vo Dinh Tung - former officer of Vinh City Urban Management Department, he confessed to receiving 120 million VND from Nguyen Dinh Hai to make 3 fake documents.

When we discussed "learning from experience" to avoid repeating similar cases, the chairman of Quan Bau ward smiled and said: "It's hard to learn from experience. When the land officials submit the documents for signature, I check to see if they have completed the documents, and I see that they have completed them. They did it so sophisticatedly that I could not detect it.

Inspection at Quan Bau ward also showed that: from January 1, 2007 to December 31, 2009, Quan Bau ward People's Committee carried out procedures to request Vinh City People's Committee to issue land use right certificates (LURC) to 184 cases, but Quan Bau ward People's Committee did not keep records of granting LURCs of households, families and individuals in the ward. Regarding the time and progress of granting LURCs: many cases did not ensure the time as prescribed in Decision No. 157/2006 and Decision No. 146/2008 of the Provincial People's Committee.

The land titles that Nguyen Thi Quynh Anh held from others and then turned into her own.

People cry for help

At the police station, we encountered a number of cases accusing Ms. Nguyen Thi Quynh Anh (born in 1975), residing in Yen Binh block - Hung Binh - Vinh City, of having committed fraud against many people by selling a piece of land to many people, or using fake land titles. The trick was that Quynh Anh held someone else's title, but notarized it as land under the name of Nguyen Thi Quynh Anh, then transferred it to someone else for billions of dong. For example: Quynh Anh used the land title of Ms. Dang Thi Quang (Tan Thanh block - Le Mao - Vinh City), notarized the transfer to Quynh Anh. Then she sold it to Mr. Cuong, sold it on Ms. Quang's power of attorney. When Mr. Cuong paid Quynh Anh 1.1 billion dong, and went with Quynh Anh to the Vinh City One-Stop Office to complete the transfer procedures, when he returned, he discovered that Quynh Anh had sold that piece of land to Mr. Hoan. Mr. Hoan also presented a set of documents with a transfer paper from Ms. Quang to Mr. Hoan.

Nguyen Thi Quynh Anh also committed fraud against many other people such as Ms. Dang Thi Tam (Le Mao Ward, Vinh City), appropriating 2.2 billion VND from Ms. Tam. According to Ms. Tam's petition, "Because we knew each other, Quynh Anh told me "if you have money, please lend me, I will mortgage the cover as collateral". That cover is the cover of Mr. Nguyen Hong Trang and Ms. Le Thi Quy residing in block 3, Trung Do ward, Vinh city and the land cover number BE 606875 is under the name of Nguyen Thi Quynh Anh. This land plot is number 31, map sheet number 02, area 132 m2, address block Hai Giang 1 - Nghi Hai ward - Cua Lo town. I gave 2.2 billion VND to Quynh Anh, I felt uneasy so I went to check, only to find out that the land cover of Mr. Trang and Ms. Le Thi Quy was given to Quynh Anh, but Quynh Anh made a fake power of attorney (without the consent of Mr. Trang and Ms. Quy). As for the land cover under the name Quynh Anh, Cua Lo town said that it was a fake cover. The signature and seal were fake but the cover was real".

When reporting, Mrs. Tam learned that Quynh Anh had also defrauded many other people. Some people had debts, and now one person ran away, another had to sell their house. Nguyen Thi Quynh Anh is now on the run and Vinh City Police have completed procedures to ban her from urgent export at the border gates.

Also at the security agency, we encountered a number of cases calling for help due to debt default due to chain loans, including red book mortgages.

Land management and certificate issuance are still lax.

Through the above events, it can be seen that the situation of making fake land titles is unpredictable. The existence of fake land title chains somewhere has an unpredictable impact on the socio-economy. It is easy to see that the application for granting land use rights certificates, although fake, is still a real cover, managed and assessed by the city's Department of Natural Resources and Environment. Currently, some pawnshops and banks have pawned fake covers. Or the signatures and seals are fake but the cover is still a real cover (issued by the State).

The process of issuing land certificates has many steps but is still loose. The process of issuing land certificates to families and organizations was previously approved by the block and hamlet unit through Committee 60 (including the secretary, hamlet chief, hamlet front, and heads of organizations) to review the documents, determine the origin of the land, the list of people to be granted, the area, and the households. Then the documents are submitted to the commune to be processed in a "rolling" manner. Currently, organizations and families apply for certificates themselves. Individuals buy the documents at the city's One-Stop Center, declare and confirm the block. Then go to the commune land office, go to the inter-ward tax team, the commune to pay taxes, the land office staff advises the commune leaders to confirm, request to issue certificates or not to issue certificates.

According to Mr. Nguyen Xuan Quang - Vice Chairman of Hung Dong Commune People's Committee, when staff members initial their signatures, the commune leaders also sign. Only when there is a dispute that we know about will we "stop". Therefore, the appraisal stage of the land officials is very important. Then, the city's Land Registration Office and the Department of Natural Resources and Environment will also appraise.

Despite such many stages of assessment, there are still fake documents that get through and are granted covers, and even some plots of land are granted two covers. Mr. Quang also said: "It is very difficult to detect which documents are fake and which are real."

Talking about the experience in advising on issuing certificates in Quan Bau ward, Mr. Le Viet Phu - a land officer of Quan Bau ward, said: "In my opinion, this is a valuable lesson. With my many years of experience, I see that just by looking at the documents, I can tell if they are fake or not. The work of verifying the origin of the land is very important. I often check closely, verify the time and types of documents. Looking at everyone makes me scared."

Currently in some wards and communes, when people go to make a cover letter, they have already prepared documents confirming the origin of the residential land, signed by some elderly people. But it is not clear whether the elderly have signed or not. If the land officials do not verify, it is easy to be fooled. The frequent rotation of land officials also causes many plots of land that the land officials should know but then "have unknown origin" because they have just arrived to work.

Land prices in times of fever have created spectacular scams for many people, making many people dizzy, coupled with loopholes in state management that have created a situation of confusion between real and fake land titles. Some people intentionally and some unintentionally can make mistakes. Drawing profound lessons in awareness as well as operation, reviewing land management at ward and commune levels and eliminating red book making chains are the first things to do.

Pearl