Football responsibility in handling Nam Dan Plaza building?

Unfinished project

The Nam Dan Plaza building project in Phan Boi Chau block, Nam Dan town is invested by Ocean Commercial Joint Stock Bank (OceanBank). This project has been unfinished and abandoned for more than 13 years. Notably, although the authorities have determined that the investor violated construction regulations, and the Provincial People's Committee has revoked and canceled related legal documents, up to now, the investor of this project (now converted into Ocean Commercial Joint Stock Bank) has not made any move to dismantle the violating construction and return the site to the locality.

Back in early 2010, OceanBank sent a document requesting the Provincial People's Committee to lease 2,633.70m2 of land at the old Nam Dan Trade Center to implement the Nam Dan Plaza construction project. According to the initial estimate, this project had a total investment of 22.5 billion VND, 3 floors high, with the purpose of "building the Ocean Commercial Joint Stock Bank Office in Nghe An".

According to the report ofNam Dan District People's Committee, this project was granted an Investment Certificate by the Provincial People's Committee on March 10, 2010, the project's implementation progress was from the second quarter of 2010 to the first quarter of 2011. However, the project continuously experienced many periods of slow progress. In particular, the first time of progress adjustment on October 10, 2014 was from the third quarter of 2014 to the second quarter of 2015. However, instead of speeding up the progress to put the project into operation soon, OceanBank repeatedly broke its promise.

Seen from above, the Nam Dan Plaza building project looks like a bunker. Photo: Thanh Cuong

The project was inspected and recorded by the interdisciplinary inspection team of the Provincial People's Committee on September 15, 2014. Accordingly, the inspection team required the investor to complete the project and put it into use by May 31, 2015 at the latest. In Notice No. 679/TB-UBND dated December 10, 2014, the Provincial People's Committee allowed the investor to extend the project completion deadline by 24 months, and by December 10, 2016, the project must be completed and put into operation. However, after being granted the Investment Certificate, the investor did not complete the related legal procedures such as land lease, construction permit issuance and construction progress behind schedule...

Therefore, in early 2017, after the inspection, the interdisciplinary inspection team of the Provincial People's Committee issued Report No. 120/BC-SKHĐT stating: "Nearly 7 years since the issuance of the Investment Certificate, the investor has not yet completed the procedures according to regulations... The fact that the investor has implemented construction on land without being leased land by the State and without a construction permit is not in accordance with the law; the project has been implemented too slowly, has been extended many times, the investor committed to the progress twice but did not implement it". The interdisciplinary inspection team recommended that the Provincial People's Committee consider canceling legal documents related to the project, terminating the operation and revoking the granted Investment Certificate.

After receiving the inspection team's report, on July 2, 2017, the Provincial People's Committee issued Decision 2364/QD.UBND approving the inspection results, terminating the project, revoking the Investment Certificate and canceling related legal documents, and handling the construction work according to the law for the Nam Dan Plaza building construction project.

Mr. Le Van Sy - Head of the Economic Infrastructure Department of Nam Dan district said: The Nam Dan Plaza Building Project in Nam Dan town, which has been implemented for more than 13 years, has been extended many times and the Provincial People's Committee has revoked the Investment License and canceled legal documents since 2017. However, the investor has not yet handled the unfinished assets on the land to hand over the site to the locality. For many years, at meetings with voters, officials, party members and people have been very upset, and have repeatedly petitioned National Assembly deputies and Provincial People's Council deputies but have not been resolved.

This building is located right at the intersection of Highway 46 and the road to the People's Committee of Nam Dan district - a prime location, but for many years it has not been demolished to return the site to the locality. Photo: Thanh Cuong

"Kick the ball" of responsibility?

To resolve the problems related to the Nam Dan Plaza Building Project, on April 5, 2019, the Provincial People's Committee had a meeting with representatives of Oceanbank and the State Bank of Vietnam, Nghe An branch. After the meeting, the Provincial People's Committee issued Notice No. 216/TB-UBND dated April 10, 2019 on the Conclusion of the Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee. Accordingly, the relevant parties agreed to terminate the Nam Dan Plaza Building Project according to Decision No. 2364/QD-UBND dated June 2, 2017 of the Provincial People's Committee. The Provincial People's Committee also requested OceanBank to promptly report to the State Bank and the Ministry of Finance to propose a plan to liquidate the project and assets according to current regulations, so that Nghe An province can direct the Nam Dan District People's Committee to develop a plan to build public works to serve the people in the project area. However, since then, OceanBank has not had a definitive answer on this issue.

It should also be added that at the time OceanBank implemented the Nam Dan Plaza building project, the Chairman of the Board of Directors of OceanBank, concurrently Chairman of Ocean Group, was Mr. Ha Van Tham. However, since October 24, 2014, Mr. Ha Van Tham was prosecuted and temporarily detained for the crime of "Violating regulations on lending in the operations of credit institutions". On April 25, 2015, the State Bank of Vietnam acquired OceanBank for 0 VND. After that, OceanBank was handed over to the Vietnam Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Industry and Trade for a short time. Currently, OceanBank has been transformed into Ocean Commercial Bank Limited.

On September 26, 2022, the People's Committee of Nam Dan district issued Document No. 2405/UBND-KTHT on dismantling the construction to return the site at the Nam Dan Plaza Building Project. In this document, the People's Committee of Nam Dan district once again requested the State Bank of Vietnam; OceanBank to liquidate the assets on the project's land in accordance with State regulations, to return the site at the Nam Dan Plaza Building Project so that Nam Dan district can deploy the construction of public works.

Latest document from the State Bank of Vietnam sent to the People's Committee of Nam Dan district. Photo: Tien Dong.

After receiving the document from the People's Committee of Nam Dan district, most recently on February 7, 2023, the State Bank of Vietnam issued Document No. 607/NHNN-TCKT to the People's Committee of Nam Dan district. According to the State Bank of Vietnam, on December 15, 2022, this agency issued Document No. 8822/NHNN-TCKT to OceanBank. In which, it affirmed that OceanBank is an independent, autonomous legal entity and is self-responsible in business activities according to the provisions of law. At the same time, the investment and construction of real estate projects by OceanBank are carried out in accordance with the provisions of the Investment Law, the Land Law and related documents. Therefore, the liquidation of assets on land and handover of land to the People's Committee of Nam Dan district for management is under the authority of OceanBank.

The State Bank of Vietnam also requested OceanBank to study and promptly take measures to handle the assets on land at the Nam Dan Plaza building according to the proposal of the Nam Dan District People's Committee, ensuring compliance with the provisions of law and no loss of State capital and assets.

According to our investigation, on October 13, 2019, OceanBank sent Document No. 618/2020/CV-OCEANBANK.03.05 to the State Bank of Vietnam proposing 3 options for handling the Nam Dan Plaza Building Project.

The first option that OceanBank proposed is that the Provincial People's Committee allows the exchange of assets. Because according to the explanation, the OceanBank branch in Vinh has not yet invested in a working office, and is having to rent an office as its headquarters. Renting an office affects business operations because the rental cost often has to be adjusted annually according to the partner's request, or from market pressure, as well as the lack of stability when the partner does not continue to rent due to the expiration of the contract. Therefore, it is possible to propose a plan to ask the Provincial People's Committee for permission to exchange assets (houses, land) in Vinh city to use as the working office of the Vinh branch.

The second option proposed by this bank is that OceanBank transfers project assets to local management and handling according to the principle of transferring project assets in their original state. This content was proposed and suggested by the Department of Planning and Investment in the meeting on April 5, 2019 with the leaders of the Provincial People's Committee.

In addition, OceanBank also proposed a third option, which is to liquidate the project and assets on the land. However, this option is said to face more obstacles, because there are still problems related to related parties such as Ocean Group Joint Stock Company (OGC). It is known that the cost that OceanBank has invested in this project is more than 7,599 billion VND.

Obviously, the fact that the Nam Dan Plaza building construction violated the provisions of the law is indisputable. However, after many years, up to this point, OceanBank has not yet come up with a definitive solution to handle this violating construction project. It is thought that this really needs to be handled decisively, to avoid prolonged entanglement, affecting the development of the locality.

Tien Dong