Two officials of the Department of Natural Resources and Environment were arrested for turning "golden land" into "low-lying land".

Two officials of the Department of Natural Resources and Environment were determined to be irresponsible, causing serious consequences, causing damage to the state budget of more than 1 billion VND.

Today, the Dong Thap Provincial Police Department announced that it had signed a decision to prosecute the case, prosecute the accused and temporarily detain Le Chien Thang (58 years old, residing in An Lac hamlet, An Binh commune, Cao Lanh district), a civil servant of the Department of Natural Resources and Environment of Dong Thap province.

Mr. Thang was previously Deputy Head of the Land Management Department of the Department of Natural Resources and Environment of Dong Thap province.

In addition, the police also prosecuted and temporarily detained Mr. Thai Hoa (58 years old, residing in My Tan commune, Cao Lanh city), an official of the Department of Natural Resources and Environment of Dong Thap province, former Head of the Land Policy Department of this Department. Both were prosecuted for the act of "Lack of responsibility causing serious consequences".

The police have prosecuted and temporarily detained two officials of the Department of Natural Resources and Environment of Dong Thap province.

These two defendants were determined to be irresponsible in checking the determination of land financial obligations of the Land Management Department's staff for SG FOOD Trading Company Limited at Lot B7 of My Hiep Industrial Park, My Hiep Commune, Cao Lanh District, Dong Thap Province, causing a budget loss of more than 1 billion VND.

According to VietNamNet's investigation, in March 2014, the Department of Natural Resources and Environment of Dong Thap province signed a contract to lease 1,050 square meters of land to SGFOOD Company to invest in the SG COFFEE project. At this time, the land was identified as belonging to the Dong Thap province fruit wholesale market, area 1, type 1 road, the land price at location 1 was 2,800,000 VND/m2; the land unit price was calculated as 29,400 VND/m2/year; the land lease term was 50 years, SGFOOD Company paid annually.

After being granted the land use rights certificate, in December 2015, SGFOOD Company submitted an application for registration of change to one-time payment for the entire rental period and was approved by Dong Thap province.

In January 2016, the Department of Natural Resources and Environment of Dong Thap province issued a document providing information to the provincial Tax Department to determine financial obligations regarding land for SGFOOD Company.

This document says that the above land has been downgraded from a "golden land" position to a class 2 road, and the unit price of rural land in position 1 is only 700,000 VND/m2.

Project of SGFOOD Company in Dong Thap province. Photo: Dong Thap Newspaper

Then, the Tax Department issued a notice to pay land rent and water surface rent to SGFOOD Company; the land price to be paid at once for the entire rental period is 637,000 VND/m2, the total amount SGFOOD Company must pay is 642,096,000 VND, and the company has paid in full.

The incident was discovered by the Department of Natural Resources and Environment of Cao Lanh district and reported to the Department. After that, the Department sent an official dispatch to the Tax Department to correct that this was a "golden land" with the land price being 2,800,000 VND/m2.

However, at this time, SGFOOD Company has transferred the land use rights to another person and has also made adjustments to the changes on the previously issued land use rights certificate.

Dong Thap Provincial Tax Department has issued a new notice on land and water surface rent payment for SGFOOD Company, in which the land location is re-determined as the original, the land price to be paid once for the entire rental period is 2,548,000 VND/m2, the total amount SGFOOD must pay is over 2.5 billion VND. Compared to the amount SGFOOD paid before, the budget suffered a loss of over 1.9 billion VND.

In addition, the land lease contract of SGFOOD Company stipulates that the right to use the above land cannot be transferred to a third party and the project implementation organization cannot transfer it without the approval of the Provincial People's Committee.

However, in March 2016, SGFOOD Company still signed a contract to transfer the land to Mr. Tran Huu Thao (residing in Binh Duong province).

Cao Lanh District Land Use Rights Registration Office received the dossier and signed the adjustment of the Land Use Rights Certificate for SGFOOD Company, which included the content: "Transfer of Land Use Rights to Mr. Tran Huu Thao".

According to the reporter's investigation, at the time of the error, Mr. Thai Hoa was the Head of the Department of Land Management, the unit that received the documents of SGFOOD Company, but did not advise the Department's leaders to coordinate with related units to determine the land price.

This agency also did not conduct field inspections but organized the determination of land prices on its own, leading to the Department Director signing documents providing false information to the Tax Department.

According to Vietnamnet