Nghe An will continue to inspect, examine and handle existing violations in mineral activities.

Many violations exist

On October 20, 2023, the Provincial People's Committee issued Decision No. 3404/QD-UBND on the establishmentInterdisciplinary delegation to inspect law compliance in mineral activities of enterprises in Quy Hop district.

During the implementation of the task, the Interdisciplinary Delegation was reorganized by the Provincial People's Committee through Decision No. 1212/QD-UBND dated May 17, 2024.

The inspection subjects of the Interdisciplinary Team include 23 enterprises licensed to exploit minerals in Quy Hop district (24 mineral exploitation licenses, of which 17 licenses were granted by the Provincial People's Committee, 7 licenses were granted by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment).

Inspection content: compliance with laws on minerals, land, environment, mine design, labor safety, use of industrial explosives, performance of financial obligations, taxes and other relevant laws; fiscal year from January 1, 2018 to the time of inspection.

Regarding the operating status, there are 18 enterprises/19 licenses currently implementing mineral exploitation activities; 5 enterprises have temporarily stopped exploitation for nearly 1 year or more due to lack of consumption market. The inspection results show that the enterprises have completed legal documents after licensing; during the operation process, they basically comply with the provisions of the law.

However, there are still shortcomings and violations in compliance with laws on land, minerals, environmental protection, mine design, industrial explosives, labor safety, and compliance with tax laws.

For example, among the 23 inspected enterprises, 11 enterprises used land as mine office areas, waste dumps, and product gathering areas for mining without being leased land by the Provincial People's Committee. There were 22 enterprises that prepared statistical reports and inventories of remaining mineral reserves in the licensed area without full information according to the form prescribed by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment; there were 22 enterprises that did not prepare complete books, vouchers, documents, and related documents to determine the actual annual mining output. All 23 enterprises that prepared annual status maps still lacked some information such as: waste dump areas, product storage areas; reserves, mineral exploration works...; there were 5 enterprises that showed signs of mineral exploitation beyond the licensed boundaries.

3/23 enterprises did not prepare annual environmental protection reports as required. 7/23 enterprises did not exploit mines in accordance with the mine design approved by the competent authority; 3/23 enterprises did not submit the approved mine design to the competent state management agency for minerals.

6/23 enterprises issued blasting passports with incomplete contents according to the form issued in Circular No. 13/2018/TT-BCT dated June 15, 2018 of the Ministry of Industry and Trade; 2/23 enterprises violated technical safety regulations in the use of industrial explosives; 1/23 enterprises did not conduct safety risk assessment and did not develop an emergency response plan in industrial explosives activities; in particular, 1 enterprise reported incorrect data on the use of industrial explosives.

In compliance with labor safety laws, 20/23 enterprises committed violations such as not organizing occupational disease examinations for workers doing heavy, toxic, and dangerous work; not conducting labor environment monitoring to control harmful effects on workers' health according to the law; not organizing labor safety and hygiene training for workers; not conducting periodic health check-ups twice a year...

Regarding tax law compliance, 18/23 enterprises still declared incorrect resource tax, environmental protection fees, corporate income tax, value added tax, etc. with a total amount of over 3 billion VND.

Based on the inspection results, the Interdisciplinary Team has drawn up a record of administrative violations and transferred the dossier to the Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee, the Tax Department and the Chairman of the People's Committee of Quy Hop District to impose administrative penalties on 23 enterprises with violations with a total amount of more than 9.8 billion VND. Of which, the fines and collection of tax violations are more than 4.2 billion VND; and the fines for violations in other fields are more than 5.6 billion VND.

“Continue to strengthen inspection…”

Head of the interdisciplinary delegation according to Decision No. 1212/QD-UBND, Deputy Director of the Department of Natural Resources and Environment Le Quang Huy said that based on the inspection results, along with recommendations to competent authorities and sectors to sanction violations and collect arrears from related enterprises; the delegation recommended the Provincial People's Committee to request enterprises to strictly comply with legal regulations in mineral activities; promptly overcome existing problems and violations.

On the other hand, it is recommended that the Provincial People's Committee assign the People's Committee of Quy Hop district to review organizations and individuals related to the existence and violations of 23 enterprises that were not promptly detected and handled; preside over and coordinate with the People's Committees of communes to urge, supervise and check the remediation of the existence and violations of enterprises inspected by the Interdisciplinary Team; strengthen inspection, examination and handling according to authority the law enforcement of enterprises operating in mineral activities, land encroachment, illegal land use conversion, timely prevent risks of labor accidents, risks of environmental incidents caused by mineral activities...

Recommend the Provincial People's Committee to assign the Provincial Police to strengthen the fight against crimes and law violations in the mineral sector. Focus on fighting illegal mineral exploitation; buying, selling, transporting, storing minerals of unknown origin and violations related to the tax sector.

Assign the Provincial Tax Department to urge enterprises to comply with the decision on administrative sanctions that the Inspection Team has transferred the files to, request the tax authority to impose sanctions according to its authority; have effective solutions, strengthen the work of preventing tax, fee and charge losses in the mineral sector; conduct inspections and examinations of the compliance with the law on taxes and fees of enterprises operating in the mineral sector in accordance with the law. Handle or recommend handling of violations and re-offending cases in accordance with the law.

At the same time, assign the Departments of Natural Resources and Environment, Construction, Industry and Trade, Labor - Invalids and Social Affairs, based on the functions and tasks of the industry, to notify and urge in writing enterprises to correct violations and related problems and take strict measures to handle enterprises that do not correct as required. Well perform the tasks assigned by the Provincial People's Committee in Directive No. 04/CT-UBND dated March 27, 2017 and Decision No. 47/QD-UBND dated June 1, 2017.

According to Deputy Director of the Department of Natural Resources and Environment Le Quang Huy, in the period of 2021 - 2022, the Interdisciplinary Team according to Decision No. 3892/QD-UBND dated October 21, 2021 of the Provincial People's Committee inspected and pointed out many shortcomings and violations of the inspected mineral enterprises; recommended competent authorities and branches to impose fines and collect more than 44 billion VND.

Therefore, together with the results of this inspection, it proves that the direction of the Provincial Party Committee and Provincial People's Committee in strengthening the inspection and examination of the mineral sector in the province is correct and necessary. Affirming that through the inspection and examination, it will contribute to changing the awareness of mineral enterprises in complying with the provisions of law; rectifying the state management work at relevant levels and sectors; at the same time, accurately assessing the existing problems and difficulties to recommend competent authorities to consider and resolve in the coming time.

Deputy Director of the Department of Natural Resources and Environment Le Quang Huy said: “The inspection results of the Delegation have been reported to the Provincial People's Committee. On December 26, 2024, the Provincial People's Committee issued Document No. 11611/UBND-NN agreeing with the report's content, in which it assigned the People's Committee of Quy Hop district and related departments and branches to implement the contents recommended by the Interdisciplinary Delegation.

Thus, the task of the Interdisciplinary Team according to Decision No. 1212/QD-UBND has been completed. However, mineral exploitation activities are present in almost all localities in the province and are still complicated. Therefore, the inspection and examination work will still be maintained in the coming time as directed by the Provincial Party Committee and the Provincial People's Committee...".