Efforts to cut 'brokers' and plug loopholes in land auctions in Nghe An

Prosecution of many "land brokers"

In 2019, Nghia Dan district organized many land auctions in Nghia Dan town, Nghia Trung, Nghia Lam, Nghia Binh, Nghia Loc, Nghia Son communes. An unusual thing at the auctions was that the number of people submitting applications was mainly registered in Quynh Luu, Dien Chau, Do Luong districts, and Hoang Mai town. These people often bought many applications to participate in the auction of many lots.

Noticing the above irregularities, Nghia Dan District Police stepped in to verify. Afterwards, the police arrested Hoang Dinh Luan (born in 1982), residing in Quynh Thach Commune (Quynh Luu), Nguyen Thanh Huy (born in 1972), residing in Quynh Hau Commune (Quynh Luu) and Nguyen Van Hieu (born in 1994), residing in Dien Thanh Commune, Dien Chau; Nguyen Ngoc Lam (born in 1959), residing in Hung Binh Ward (Vinh City), Deputy Director of Hop Danh Bac Nghe An Auction Company and Ho Thi Cuong (born in 1974), residing in Quynh Luu District.

Two subjects Hoang Dinh Luan and Nguyen Thanh Huy were prosecuted by Nghia Dan Police for "Violating regulations on property auction activities". Documentary photo

The method of these subjects is to find people who really want to buy land in Nghia Dan and then offer a price higher than the starting price from 100 - 200 million VND/lot. Then, they submit documents, connect with some subjects in auction companies to arrange auction applications and get the list of land auction participants. They arrange and negotiate with these people to withdraw from participating in the second round of auction. The Investigation Police Agency has initiated a case, prosecuted the above 5 defendants for the crime of "Violating regulations on property auction activities" as prescribed in Article 218, Penal Code 2015.

In Nam Dan district, the district police prosecuted the defendants including: Tran Ngoc Chung (born in 1993), residing in Vinh Tan ward (Vinh city); Nguyen Quoc Huy (born in 1996), residing in Dong Vinh ward (Vinh city) and Hoang Kieu Vinh (born in 1982), residing in Nghi Truong commune (Nghi Loc) for the crime of "Violating regulations on property auction activities".

On September 9, 2018, at the headquarters of the People's Committee of Nam Giang commune (Nam Dan) and the Property Auction Service Center, an auction of the right to use 57 residential land lots in Nam Giang commune with a total area of ​​10,811.72 m2 was held.²At nearly 5 p.m. the same day, when Chung and Huy were receiving 110 million VND from land auction participants after colluding to lower the price, the police raided and caught them red-handed.

Another police team executed an emergency arrest warrant for Hoang Kieu Vinh. Through collecting documents and evidence, the Investigation Committee determined that Vinh had colluded with other subjects to lower the price of land lot number 18, illegally profiting 190 million VND.

Dien Chau District Police successfully broke Project 1217G, summoning 13 subjects belonging to 2 groups of land brokers at the end of 2018. Photo: Document

Previously, in January 2018, Dien Chau District Police also decided to prosecute the criminal case of "Disturbing public order" and "Destruction or intentional damage to property", prosecuted and temporarily detained 2 suspects. Due to conflicts in dividing the "broker" money in the land auction in Quynh Ngoc commune, Quynh Luu district, 2 groups of subjects went in 3 cars and used weapons to fight and destroy. Dien Chau District Police established a special project, summoned 27 related subjects to work, identified 14 subjects participating in the disturbance, temporarily detained 3 cars, seized 32 weapons of various types such as: knives, swords, sticks...

In Quynh Luu district, in 2 days (July 21 and 22, 2018), Quynh Luu district People's Committee organized an auction of land use rights in Son Hai commune. The auction attracted 930 sets of documents with more than 2,000 participants, the largest scale ever in the district. During the auction, the police force discovered and arrested 3 groups of people carrying weapons along the national highway, around the headquarters of Son Hai commune People's Committee.

Quynh Luu District Police force blocked and strictly checked the documents of people entering the land auction area. Photo: Document

The seized evidence included 20 machetes, 15 butcher knives, 2 swords, 8 iron pipes made into knives longer than 1 meter. The above weapons belonged to 2 groups of land brokers in Quynh Luu and Vinh City. At the investigation agency, the subjects confessed that they prepared "hot" weapons to resolve conflicts in the land auction activities of the "broker" groups.

Increased monitoring

The situation of “land brokers” has been happening in the localities in recent times, causing resentment among the people. Some violations include conducting auctions in an improper manner; colluding, lowering prices, and raising prices in auction activities... Many “gangsters” disrupt order at auctions, interfere, threaten, and oppress auction participants. As a result, many people who really want to buy land cannot buy it or have to buy it at very high prices.

In order to limit the above situation, since the end of 2018, many localities have implemented the indirect secret ballot land auction method. The implementation of this method has initially brought about some positive effects such as: security and order are ensured; overcoming the situation of "brokers" and "gangster" causing chaos in localities organizing land auctions; people with real land needs have bought the land they need, contributing to reducing pressure on localities.

The rate of bidding exceeding the starting price is high (an average increase of 20-30%), increasing the State budget revenue; the work of collecting applications and organizing land auctions is simpler and faster than direct auctions.

Land auction officials, local government representatives and people directly counted votes and announced the land auction results in Quynh Thuan commune. Photo courtesy

However, there are still some problems in the implementation of this form. Despite indirect voting, many "land brokers" have gathered into groups to buy as many plots of land in projects as possible, then they resell them to people in need at higher prices, inflating land prices that are not true to reality.

In addition, many customers who have registered to participate in the auction but have not paid the deposit can collude and agree with each other, then only 1 or a few people pay the deposit to get the property, the others who do not pay the deposit only lose the money to buy the auction documents, so the phenomenon of collusion and price suppression still occurs.

In particular, the issue of customer information security when implementing this form needs to be resolved. Because although the auction is by indirect voting, the current regulations on the sale of auction participation documents and the confidentiality of information of auction participants are the responsibility of the auction organization. According to the leader of the Department of Justice, the Department has grasped these shortcomings and is researching and advising the Provincial People's Committee to perfect the institutions to overcome them as soon as possible.

The provincial monitoring team made initial assessments and lessons learned after the new auction format in Quynh Luu district. Photo: Le Nhung

Recently, the People's Committee of Nghe An province issued a Decision to establish a monitoring team to conduct land use rights auctions in 2020. This monitoring team is headed by the Deputy Director of the Department of Justice, with members being civil servants from the following units: Department of Justice, Department of Finance, Provincial Police, Department of Planning and Investment, Department of Natural Resources and Environment and representatives of the leaders of the People's Committees at the district level where the land auctions take place.

The monitoring team will select a number of land use rights auctions in Nghe An province to monitor the auction organization to ensure proper implementation of procedures and order according to the provisions of the law on property auctions. In case of detecting violations, promptly make a record and request the competent person or competent agency to handle it. The unit conducting the land use rights auction is responsible for sending notice of the auction schedule to the monitoring team at least 15 days in advance.