Nghe An: Many issues arise in public asset management after the merger

Cultural houses for blocks and hamlets: both redundant and lacking

According to the report of the Department of Public Asset Management and Auction (Department of Finance), currently districts and towns are urgently completing handling and arrangement plans to submit to competent authorities for consideration and approval.

Specifically, among the 4,326 housing and land facilities in the province that must be arranged after the merger, up to this point, except for the housing and land assets of 20 communes, towns and administrative agencies and public service units that must be merged and arranged due to large areas and assets that must wait for the Provincial People's Council's approval, the housing and land assets of the blocks, hamlets and villages after the merger (1,608 hamlets and villages reduced) have been shaped in the direction of handling and use after the merger.

The Cultural House of Village 4, Quynh Ngoc Commune (Quynh Luu) after the merger has rebuilt its facilities and new campus to meet advanced new rural standards. Photo: Nguyen Hai

Accordingly, some community halls, cultural houses of blocks and hamlets in districts were put up for auction, exploiting land funds to supplement facilities and equipment for new cultural houses. The majority of the remaining localities proposed to retain cultural houses and community hall land as places for sports and cultural activities for the people, because the public land fund of hamlets and communes has decreased, and will be difficult to find in the future.

According to the localities, although the old village and hamlet cultural houses were retained, there was a problem of "both excess and lack" of facilities for activities of the blocks, hamlets, villages and communes. In terms of form, after the merger of hamlets, the population size was larger, so of course the cultural houses and the area of ​​the village and hamlet cultural houses had to be upgraded and expanded to meet the living needs of the people of the new hamlets and villages.

Close-up of the office building of Nghia Hoa Commune People's Committee, which, although newly built, has quickly deteriorated due to lack of use. Photo: Nguyen Hai

However, only a few communes in Nam Dan, Hung Nguyen, Nghi Loc districts or Quynh Luu, Yen Thanh, Vinh city... in the process of building advanced new rural areas have mobilized resources, expanded the campus, rebuilt the village and hamlet halls to be larger, meeting new standards; the rest are mostly in their original state, so when meeting the block or hamlet, if enough people come, there is no place to sit and even though a new hamlet is established, each residential cluster still has to meet at that cultural house.

Mr. Nguyen Dinh An - Deputy Head of Finance - Planning Department of Nghia Dan District People's Committee shared: In mountainous areas, the distance between hamlets is far, so to create conditions for people, the commune left the old hamlet cultural house for people to participate in sports and cultural activities more conveniently. Besides, unlike urban or rural areas, hamlet and village cultural houses in mountainous areas are often far from the center and remote, so if the land use rights are recovered, auctioned, and exploited, the value is not high.

The Cultural House of Village 8, Quynh Lien Commune (Hoang Mai Town) after the merger did not meet the new standards because it could not expand the area of ​​the campus. Photo: Nguyen Hai

Speed ​​up the process of asset processing

Unlike the headquarters of the People's Committee of the commune or town, which are assets invested by the State and now need to be handled by the State, the State must establish a Council to evaluate and appraise the assets. Meanwhile, the communal house and cultural house of the block or hamlet are assets with multiple ownership, in which the State, people and individuals contribute (socialized), so handling them is very difficult.

Mr. Nguyen Trung Long - Head of the Department of Public Asset Management and Auction, Department of Finance shared: Because cultural houses are assets contributed by the people, to liquidate them, we must consult the people. In fact, after consulting, most localities have proposed to leave the old cultural houses of hamlets and blocks for community activities. The construction of new cultural houses and meeting halls will be gradually invested by the communes and districts.

The campus and old administrative headquarters of Nghia Hoa commune are being proposed by Thai Hoa town to be retained to become the town's Political Training Center. Photo: Nguyen Hai

One of the reasons why the development of a plan to handle public assets in districts and towns takes a long time is because the records of measuring the area of ​​​​cultural houses of blocks and hamlets have complicated origins and many errors. Many cultural houses of blocks and hamlets after the merger have fully depreciated, so dismantling them will lose value and even take time to demolish.

Meanwhile, a survey in some communes subject to merger such as Nghia Lien, Nghia Thang (Nghia Dan), or Nghia Hoa (Thai Hoa town), Hung Nhan (Hung Nguyen); Dien Minh, Dien Binh (Dien Chau)... found that due to being abandoned and unoccupied for the past 2 years, the old headquarters have now seriously degraded, even though they were just built to meet new rural standards...

Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Tuan - Head of Finance - Planning Department, Thai Hoa Town People's Committee said: In the area, only Nghia Hoa commune headquarters is subject to reorganization (due to merger into Long Son ward). The town wants to keep it to plan to bring in the Political Training Center or other units but it has not been approved yet. While waiting for opinions, the town assigned Long Son ward to manage it, but because the headquarters has no one working there, it is deteriorating very quickly.

Meanwhile, the former administrative headquarters of Nghia Lien commune, after merging with Nghia Thang and Nghia Tan communes to form Nghia Thanh commune (Nghia Dan), is developing a plan to auction and exploit the land fund. Photo: Nguyen Hai

The representative of the Finance and Planning Department of Nghia Dan district said: The campus still has headquarters and office buildings, so before auctioning the land use rights, it is necessary to carry out procedures for auctioning and liquidating assets, along with re-planning the infrastructure to auction the land, which takes a lot of time. If the land and houses are not used, they will deteriorate very quickly.

Sharing the above situation, Mr. Nguyen Trung Long - Head of the Department of Public Asset Management and Auction, Department of Finance said: The Department is currently synthesizing and receiving dossiers on handling assets after merger from districts and towns. Basically, the province acknowledges and respects the wishes of some localities to retain the cultural house grounds of blocks and hamlets, but for some large assets, there must be a plan to handle them according to regulations. The Department has instructed localities to prepare dossiers so that after the Provincial People's Council approves the plan, they will proactively handle and hand over.

The administrative headquarters of Hung Xa commune (Hung Nguyen) was previously transferred to the Primary and Secondary School, so the facilities were basically kept, but the rooms still had to be renovated to suit the school. Photo: Nguyen Hai

To promptly and thoroughly handle public assets after the merger, in our opinion, on the one hand, the province needs to provide guidance on auctioning off assets on land in a more concise and faster way. Currently, housing assets that are not used and do not have funds for preservation will deteriorate and lose value over time. On the other hand, it is necessary to give local authorities the initiative to handle and convert land. Accordingly, old neighborhood cultural houses that are close together can be exchanged with nearby households to expand the campus or liquidated to get investment resources to build new cultural houses, limiting the current situation of both surplus and shortage in neighborhood cultural houses.