Nghe An: Difficulties in handling land and headquarters of agencies after merger

On the basis of promoting administrative reform (AR) and streamlining the apparatus, Nghe An has rearranged a number of administrative and public service agencies in a more centralized and streamlined direction.

The first is to arrange district-level continuing education centers with vocational guidance and training centers or vocational secondary schools.

According to this policy, a series of districts and towns with continuing education centers have been merged with vocational training centers or vocational secondary schools located in the area.

The Nam Dan District Continuing Education Center was put up for auction but was unsuccessful. Photo: Nguyen Hai

Next, the cultural, information and sports centers were merged with district radio and television stations; the protection forest management boards were merged with forestry companies in the delta districts; recently, the forest rangers were merged in the direction of district clusters; the agricultural extension stations, veterinary breeding stations, plant protection stations and seed stations in a district were merged into one focal point to become a service application center, transferring agricultural techniques at the district level...

Meanwhile, most of the merged and dissolved agencies such as continuing education centers, livestock stations, and plant protection stations are in very beautiful and spacious locations, so they have high profitability; some facilities such as the protective forest management board and continuing education centers, cultural and information centers, etc. have just been built, but some have had to close and are deteriorating very quickly.

At the meeting with voters and provincial People's Council delegates, some voters from Nam Dan and Quynh Luu districts reflected this reality and if this situation continues, it will be a waste of land and public assets.

According to regulations and principles, after being merged or dissolved, public assets, including headquarters, equipment and land use rights, must be recovered by the State for management. For assets and equipment, the basis is to re-evaluate the assets for continued use; if it is land use rights, each specific case must be evaluated; if the assets on the land are still usable, then calculate to hand them over to another agency for use; if the headquarters are degraded and there is no longer a need, then the auction of land use rights must be carried out to collect the budget.

Mr. Hoang Minh Quan - Head of Price and Public Asset Management Department, Department of Finance

Although the principle is that public assets of agencies and organizations after merger must be recovered for the State to manage and decide, in reality the solution is not simple and is entangled in many regulations. Agencies and units about to be merged are only concerned with arranging human resources, while there is no clear plan for assets and headquarters.

In fact, the implementation by auctioning land use rights for the headquarters of merged and dissolved administrative agencies is not simple because of legal regulations.

Due to the above-mentioned barriers, in the past, the province has organized a number of auctions of land use rights of merged public service units, but they were quite difficult and complicated.

The reason is that if the land use rights are auctioned, the land prices are high and the payment must be made in one go, so very few businesses have the capacity to participate; not to mention that after the auction is over, the new unit must continue to use the land according to the planning, cannot divide the plots, and cannot convert to residential land, so not many units are interested. Therefore, from the starting point of the land use rights auction, the province must switch to land lease auction and businesses can choose between two solutions: paying the land lease in one go or annually.

According to regulations, Vinh bus station must be returned to the province for auction after being relocated to a new location, but the company refused to hand it over. Photo: Nguyen Hai

According to Mr. Hoang Minh Quan - Head of Price and Public Asset Management Department: With this solution, the land plot which is the headquarters of Vinh City Radio and Television Station was successfully sold after 3 auctions. Some units such as Muong Xen Town Bus Station (Ky Son), Nam Dan District Continuing Education Center... although organizing land lease auctions several times, have not been successful.

The reason for not being successful in the land lease auction, according to the information from the participating enterprises, is that the one-time payment is too high. For example, Muong Xen Bus Station (Ky Son) has a beautiful location and limited land fund, so the starting price is approximately 20 billion VND; to use it, the enterprise must invest in additional facilities of about 5 - 7 billion VND, so not all units can meet the demand.

Or like the Nam Dan Continuing Education Center, the fact that a unit spent nearly 15 billion VND (at the starting price) to take over a land plot without any business plan is also a question mark. Therefore, instead of paying the money at once, businesses that have auctioned the land lease rights pay the money annually and accept a price change every 5 years; the remaining capital put into business will be more effective.

Experience from big cities like Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City shows that agencies and units using public assets after merger and dissolution are recovered by the provincial and municipal People's Committees and handed over to land fund development centers to use funds for compensation and site clearance, then auctioned off, so the revenue to the provincial budget is quite high.

The land of VTC High School (opposite the Department of Transport) was auctioned and put into use very quickly due to changing the purpose of residential land. Photo: Nguyen Hai

Mr. Ho Phan Long - Director of Nghe An Land Fund Development Center said: While districts, cities, towns in the province as well as localities organize land fund exploitation quite effectively by auctioning land use rights, at the provincial level, due to lack of separate budget sources, the center cannot take over public land funds of agencies and units after mergers, dissolution as well as other land funds to clear the site, create clean land funds to auction to generate revenue for the budget. Currently, the center is only focusing on supporting site clearance for major projects of the province.

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