Land officials and the "magic" tricks of red books

(Baonghean) - On June 14, 2004, after learning that the Provincial People's Committee had decided to approve the prices of land lots in the residential planning areas in Nghia Tan commune (Nghia Dan district), the family of Mr. Tran Dinh Linh and Mrs. Pham Thi Luc submitted a request to the local government to grant residential land and paid 600,000 VND to the commune's land office. Although Mr. Linh and Mrs. Luc had not been granted residential land by the local government, the family sold the land to Mr. Ho Sy Tri and Ho Sy Phuong, residing in Nghia Lien commune (Nghia Dan) for a total amount of 16 million VND. To streamline the procedures, the buyer and seller asked Nguyen Van Toan - a cadastral officer of Nghia Tan commune to do the name change procedure. It is worth mentioning that when Mr. Linh and Mrs. Luc asked them to do the transfer procedure, although they knew that Mr. Linh and Mrs. Luc had not been granted residential land by the commune's People's Committee, Nguyen Van Toan still agreed and wrote a land transfer paper for the two families. After completing the procedures, the land seller, Mr. Tran Dinh Linh, paid Nguyen Van Toan 11,723 thousand VND, the buyer paid 5 million VND, a total of 16,723 thousand VND, but Nguyen Van Toan did not pay the money into the treasury.

After nearly 1 month (July 4, 2004), the Nghia Tan Commune Housing Land Grant Council met to consider granting residential land to 40 households, but Mr. Linh and Mrs. Luc's families were not on the list of land grantees. Mr. Tran Dinh Linh and Mr. Ho Sy Phuong immediately ran to Nguyen Van Toan's house to ask for the reason and demanded the return of the entire amount of 11,723 thousand VND that had been paid to Toan with a proper receipt. After a period of illness, Mr. Tran Dinh Linh died, but Nguyen Van Toan still did not return the illegally collected money to Mr. Linh's family for burial. After Mr. Linh passed away, Mr. Ho Sy Tri and Ho Sy Phuong met with Nguyen Van Toan many times to request land grant and land use right certificates as agreed, but each time they met, Toan's face was as cold as money, saying: "Please calm down, don't make a fuss, everything will be fine".

Nguyen Van Toan (right) presented at the police investigation agency.
Nghia Dan District Police.

While being increasingly demanding money and land, afraid of being discovered by the people and reported to the authorities, Nguyen Van Toan used 2 red books that had been transferred and were no longer legally valid to change the owner's name, land plot number, and map number in order to appropriate property. That red book was in the name of Mr. Nguyen Xuan Vu, residing in Nghia Tan commune, Nghia Dan, with land plot number 10, map sheet number 6, which was granted a land use right certificate by Nghia Dan district People's Committee in 1998. In 2003, Mr. Vu asked Toan to complete the procedures to transfer the land use right to Mr. Nguyen Quoc Nho and was granted a red book by Nghia Dan district People's Committee. Similarly, the red book of Mr. Tran Van Chay, with land plot number 02, map sheet number 06, was also granted a red book by Nghia Dan district People's Committee. In 2003, Mr. Chay transferred the land to Mr. Luu Hong Phong and Ms. Tran Thi Sau, then Mr. Phong and Ms. Sau transferred it to Mr. Nguyen Duy Yen and Ms. Le Thi Tinh and were granted a land use right certificate by the People's Committee of Nghia Dan district. In principle, after completing the transfer procedure (granting a land use right certificate to the buyer), the commune cadastral officer must submit the transferred land use right certificate to the competent authority. However, in both cases of the above transfer procedure, although the People's Committee of Nghia Dan district had granted a new land use right certificate to the transferee, Nguyen Van Toan did not submit the old red book to the Department of Natural Resources and Environment but kept it on his own.

To illegally pay off the debt as promised to Mr. Ho Sy Tri and Ho Sy Phuong, and at the same time appropriate hundreds of square meters of public land of the State, after knowing that in the area of ​​the Mit hamlet power station, Nghia Tan commune, there was a land plot without a number along National Highway 48, the road surface was 18 meters wide, 20 meters deep, and had not been granted to anyone, Nguyen Van Toan reused the 2 Land Use Right Certificates that were no longer legally valid (ie the red book of Mr. Tran Van Chay transferred to Mr. Ho Sy Phuong and the red book of Mr. Nguyen Xuan Vu transferred to Mr. Ho Sy Tri) and edited the land plot number, code, and map. Soon, Mr. Ho Sy Phuong and Ho Sy Tri were granted land use right certificates by the District People's Committee. During the land allocation procedures, Toan also collected 2 million VND from Mr. Tri and 2,500,000 VND from Mr. Phuong, but the total amount of money that Toan and his wife only paid was 675,000 VND, and Nguyen Van Toan pocketed and appropriated the remaining 2,275,000 VND.

In early 2011, when Mr. Ho Sy Phuong was gathering materials and preparing to build a house, he was suspended by the local government because he discovered a fake land use right certificate. Mr. Ho Sy Tri immediately brought the red book to the authorities to see what was true and was told that he was also a victim like Mr. Phuong.

After collecting evidence, considering that the criminal act of the cadastral officer of Nghia Tan commune was well-founded, the Investigation Police Agency of Nghia Dan district police initiated a case and prosecuted Nguyen Van Toan, born in 1967, residing in Nghia Tan commune (Nghia Dan) for the act of "Taking advantage of position and power while performing official duties" according to Article 281 of the Penal Code. The above decision was approved by the People's Procuracy of Nghia Dan district on April 17, 2012. This is a lesson on the use and management of cadres and land resources for local authorities.

Huu Trong