Limitations in the form of land auction by indirect voting
(Baonghean.vn) - Since the beginning of 2019, Nghe An province has piloted land auctions by indirect secret ballot in 6 districts, cities and towns: Vinh City, Hoang Mai Town, Nam Dan, Yen Thanh, Dien Chau and Quynh Luu. This is a positive change, attracting the attention of the people, but in reality there are still shortcomings that need to be learned from.
Pilot auction by secret ballot
In Quynh Luu, for the pilot, the district selected Quynh Tan and Quynh Thuan as two communes representing the two mountainous and coastal areas of the district to implement. In Quynh Tan commune, in the June 1st voting session, the district put 40 lots up for indirect auction, of which 35 lots were sold, 4 lots were unsold and 1 lot had no buyer.
Mr. Ho Minh Mau - Chairman of Quynh Tan Commune People's Committee was excited: Compared to before, this auction in the form of secret ballot and indirect voting was more peaceful and relaxed. The "land brokers" no longer act arrogantly, mischievously, and cause chaos like before, the rate of people in the commune who want to buy land is higher.
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| Land auction officials, local government representatives and residents directly counted votes and announced the land auction results in Quynh Thuan commune. Photo: Le Nhung |
Together with Quynh Luu, Dien Chau successfully organized indirect land auctions in 5 communes of Dien An, Dien Loi, Dien Xuan, Dien Tan and Dien Phuc. As a result, 51 plots of land were sold, significantly reducing the situation of land brokers "surrounding" voters as before, the average amount of land auctioned increased by 20% compared to before. Mr. Phan Xuan Vinh - Vice Chairman of the District People's Committee assessed: This new form of land auction is very effective, the budget has increased and the land has reached the hands of people in need; the situation of land brokers soliciting and forcing people has decreased significantly.
Continue to implement and learn from experience
Besides the above advantages, from the actual study of indirect land auctions in Quynh Luu area, we also found some points that need further research to be adjusted to make land auctions better.
The firstis the regulation on the confidentiality of land auction records. According to the regulations, land auction records are kept confidential. However, due to the regulation that land auction participants must register with the auction unit which land lot they will bid on before voting, this unintentionally creates a loophole for "land brokers" to know and bargain and arrange with buyers. In fact, in Quynh Thuan, although the auction is in a new form, there is still a situation where professional land brokers come to each registrant to negotiate on the price, otherwise they will have to buy at a high price...
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| The provincial monitoring team assessed initial lessons learned from the new auction format in Quynh Luu district. Photo: Le Nhung |
On the other hand, the results of land auctions in Quynh Tan and Quynh Thuan show that, except for some land lots that increased in price by about 16% compared to the state-regulated price, it is not normal for many land lots after the auction to only increase by 1 to 3 million VND, and even some lots only increased by a few hundred thousand VND. In fact, to get the desired land lots, some land buyers still have to pay brokers and this means a loss to the budget.
The fact that many lots of land after auction are only a few million VND different from the starting price is not really normal. Although it is not yet possible to conclude whether there is a compromise or not, if this situation continues, the purpose of limiting "land brokers" will not be completely resolved.
To solve this situation, the province should study the direction of amending the regulations so that land auction buyers do not need to register to buy a specific land lot with the Auction Company and have the right to secretly write directly on a secret ballot, put it in a box to be opened publicly at the auction opening, whoever places the highest bid will win.
Second drawbackis the regulation on the deposit level. The Law on Auction stipulates that when auctioning land, the buyer must deposit from 5% to a maximum of 20% of the starting value of the land lot. In Nghe An, the Provincial People's Committee stipulates that land auction participants must deposit 20% of the land lot value according to the starting price. However, because the deposit is calculated as a percentage, information about the land lot purchase is easily leaked, so some commune leaders have proposed to amend the regulation to stipulate the general deposit level as 100 or 200 million VND, regardless of the land lot value, so that land auction participants can easily choose. Anyone who fails to bid for land will be fully refunded.Finally, the regulations on auction agencies: Currently, according to the new regulations (from July 1, 2019), auctions are a specialized field, participating enterprises must have full conditions according to regulations, but in reality, there are enterprises that both consult on design and build infrastructure for the land put up for auction, then sign a contract with the district to organize the auction, causing many concerns and doubts for people about objectivity and information confidentiality.
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| Reporter talked with Mr. Bui Thai Tho - Head of the Judicial Support Department, Department of Justice about the initial assessment of the results of implementing indirect land auctions. Photo: PV |
Talking to us, Mr. Ho Huu Hung - Head of the Justice Department of Quynh Luu district admitted: Previously registered enterprises can register for many fields and it is also possible for an enterprise to stand up to do infrastructure and then do auctions. This restriction will no longer exist from July 1, 2019 and to operate in the auction field, enterprises will be forced to choose to convert. If they do auction business, they will no longer have the field of planning consultancy and infrastructure construction of auctioned lands.
Mr. Bui Thai Tho - Head of the Department of Judicial Support, Deputy Head of the Interdisciplinary Supervision Team on the form of indirect land auction by secret ballot said, Among the 6 districts, cities and towns selected by the province for the pilot in 2019, 3 districts, namely Nam Dan, Dien Chau and recently Quynh Luu, have implemented it. Initial results show that the new form has solved the basic problem of safety and order for auctions, the phenomenon of "land brokers" running rampant and causing chaos in local auctions has significantly decreased; people who need to buy land have bought the land they need, contributing to reducing pressure on localities.
However, because the indirect land auction by secret ballot is one of two new auction forms added under the 2017 Auction Law, it is inevitable that some problems will arise during implementation.
Mr. Tho said that in the coming time, the selected localities will continue to implement auctions in this form and the Group will strengthen supervision, receive comments, grasp multi-dimensional information to evaluate, synthesize to make recommendations, and submit to the Provincial People's Committee to continue to perfect the regulations on land auctions in this form./.
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