Nghe An revokes cards and administratively penalizes 10 organizations and individuals in land auctions

On the afternoon of October 30, the Legal Committee of the Provincial People's Council had a meeting with the Department of Justice under the program of supervising auction work in the province. Also participating were representatives of the Provincial People's Committee Office, the Department of Finance, and the Department of Natural Resources and Environment.

Measures to overcome the "broker" situation

Based on the supervision of land use rights auctions in a number of localities, at the meeting, members of the supervision delegation raised a number of concerns from practice.

The most concerning thing is that the situation of "auction brokers" still occurs in localities, causing resentment among the people, while in 2 years, the provincial monitoring team has monitored over 20 land use rights auctions in localities, through which it has discovered and advised on how to overcome the problem of "brokers"?

Explaining this issue, Deputy Director of the Department of Justice Nguyen Thi Que Anh affirmed that, with the responsibility of a management agency, the Department has advised on institutional aspects, specifically advising the Provincial People's Committee to issue Decision No. 12/2018/QD-UBND and Official Dispatch No. 8443/UBND-NC, dated November 2, 2018, regulating land auctions and strengthening the management of land auction activities.

Land use rights auctions are taking place in a complicated manner. Photo: Mai Hoa

According to the Deputy Director of the Department of Justice, to overcome the situation of "brokers", the Department of Justice alone cannot do it, but it is also the responsibility of the Public Security sector, the People's Committees at the district and commune levels.

Regarding the solution to overcome the situation of “brokers” in auctions, according to Director of the Department of Justice Hoang Quoc Hao, keeping information of auctioneers confidential is an important step. On the other hand, based on the pilot change of auction form from direct to indirect in some localities recently, the Department of Justice will also advise the Provincial People's Committee to apply the form of mass indirect auction in the coming time.

Focus on monitoring auction activities of auction units

Concerned about the quality of auction units, the representative of the Provincial People's Council's Legal Committee requested the Department of Justice to clarify how violations in auction activities are detected? What are the auctions detected through inspection, examination and supervision?

According to the representative of the Department of Justice, the violations include improperly conducting auctions; conducting auctions without being an auctioneer; colluding and lowering prices in auction activities...

Director of the Department of Justice Hoang Quoc Hao said that the Department will advise the Provincial People's Committee to widely apply the indirect auction method to limit "auction brokers". Photo: Mai Hoa

In 2018 and 2019, the Department of Justice revoked the auction card of 1 individual and imposed administrative penalties on 4 organizations and 5 individuals for administrative violations in land auction activities.

At the meeting, many issues were also raised by the members of the monitoring delegation, such as widely disseminating information about auction activities so that people can understand them; determining starting prices close to the market; regulations on deposits to limit the situation of "blue teams"; building a land development fund to have resources for localities to clear land and invest in infrastructure in auction areas.

From the supervision practice in localities, the Legal Committee of the Provincial People's Council requested the Department of Justice to continue researching and advising the Provincial People's Committee to perfect institutions to overcome current shortcomings in land use rights auctions.

The immediate solution is to amend the shortcomings in Decision No. 12/2018/QD-UBND related to the change in the deposit level of 20% of the starting price as it is now, or the regulation on the time to pay the winning bid after 30 days from the auction date is inappropriate; on the other hand, this decision only focuses on the content of the auction of land use rights for households without raising the issue of land auction for organizations implementing investment projects...

Along with that, the Department of Justice needs to strengthen professional guidance to help property owners (district and commune authorities) properly implement regulations in land auction activities and strengthen supervision of auction units, especially in protecting information of auction participants and properly implementing auction regulations...