'Strange' story in land lease of Bac Mien Trung Seafood Company Limited

Cooperative lost warehouse?

Nghe An Newspaper has just received a complaint from Mr. Truong Dac Ky - Party Cell Secretary, Village Chief and Director of Nghia Phu Salt Cooperative (Quynh Nghia Commune, Quynh Luu District), about the land used to build a salt warehouse of Nghe An Salt and Trading Joint Stock Company (Salt Company) in the past (including the salt warehouse of Nghia Phu Salt Cooperative) has just beenNorth Central Seafood Company Limiteddemolition and leveling

According to Mr. Ky, Nghia Phu salt village has existed for a long time. Currently, Nghia Phu Salt Cooperative is an economic organization located in Nghia Phu village, with a salt production area of ​​23.6 hectares. The cooperative has 230 member households (accounting for 88.9% of the village's households), with 360 salt production workers. Since the policy of establishing the cooperative, Nghia Phu village has had 3 salt warehouses, including 2 warehouses of the Salt Company and 1 warehouse of Nghia Phu Salt Cooperative. In 2005, the Salt Company borrowed the cooperative's warehouse to repair and purchase salt for the people. After that, the Cooperative's Management Board also agreed to let the Salt Company use it. However, after a while, in 2012, the Salt Company completed the procedures to be granted a Land Use Rights Certificate for the entire warehouse of Nghia Phu Salt Cooperative without the Cooperative's knowledge. Some time later, it was learned that the land had been leased by the Provincial People's Committee to the North Central Seafood Company Limited.

On the land there were previously 3 old warehouses which have now been demolished and leveled by the North Central Seafood Company Limited. Photo: TD

“On August 25, 2018, I submitted a request to the authorities to respond to whether the Salt Company had the right to sell assets attached to the land to the North Central Seafood Company Limited or not, and was told that the company was only allowed to build a salt warehouse for the intended use and the land lease term was 40 years, until October 29, 2052,” said Mr. Ky.

Currently, according to the reporter's investigation, the land plot No. 115, map sheet 18 mentioned above in Quynh Nghia commune has had the old warehouse demolished and the land leveled by Bac Mien Trung Seafood Company Limited. It is worth mentioning that when working with us, the representative of Quynh Nghia commune's leadership did not know the purpose of the land leveling. And Bac Mien Trung Seafood Company Limited has not yet provided the documents related to the above land plot to the People's Committee of Quynh Nghia commune for monitoring and management.

Mr. To Quang Trung, a judicial officer of Quynh Nghia commune, is currently temporarily in charge of the land administration sector. When he opened the map of land plot No. 115 mentioned above for us to see, the information on the map still showed that it was land belonging to Nghia Phu Salt Cooperative.

Mr. Truong Dac Ky presented his concerns regarding the land plot. Photo: TD

Also related to this issue, in the minutes of the meeting between the People's Committee of Quynh Nghia Commune and Mr. Truong Dac Ky on April 6, 2023, Mr. Ky himself also reflected that the North Central Seafood Company Limited posted information online about converting the old salt warehouse into a commercial service area, had leveled the ground and requested the People's Committee of the commune to supervise the use of land for the right purpose (building a warehouse). At the same time, it was requested that people working in the salt industry must have a place to build a warehouse to store salt, especially when they cannot sell it during the rainy season, they must have a place to store it. Meanwhile, with the North Central Seafood Company Limited demolishing the old salt warehouses, Nghia Phu Salt Cooperative no longer has a warehouse to store salt when needed.

Land leased in a "quick" manner

According to our verification, land plot 115, which is currently leased to Bac Mien Trung Seafood Company Limited, was leased on October 20, 2012. After that, the Provincial People's Committee issued Decision 309/QD-UBND.DC to the Salt Company for use in non-agricultural production and business purposes for a term of 40 years (until October 29, 2052). Next, the Department of Natural Resources and Environment signed Land Lease Contract No. 135/HD-TD dated November 27, 2012 and was granted Land Use Right Certificate No. BT344885 dated June 30, 2014 to the Salt Company and Certificate of ownership of construction works attached to the land on December 12, 2017.

Rocks and soil removed from the old warehouse are still scattered on the land. Photo: TD

After being granted the Land Use Rights Certificate by the Provincial People's Committee, the Salt Company leased the old warehouses on this land to the North Central Seafood Company Limited. In March 2018, the Salt Company submitted a request to return the land to the Provincial People's Committee for lease to the North Central Seafood Company Limited. Therefore, on August 20, 2018, the Provincial People's Committee issued Decision 603/QD-UBND to reclaim 3,868m²Land of the Salt Company. On the same day, the Provincial People's Committee issued Decision 604/QD-UBND to lease the land area that the Salt Company had paid for to the North Central Seafood Company without any auction.

As of May 24, 2021, the Provincial People's Committee has issued a document adjusting the land lease area of ​​Bac Mien Trung Seafood Company Limited from 3,868m²down to 3,437.3m². By December 31, 2021, the Department of Natural Resources and Environment also issued a Notice on the issuance of a Land Use Right Certificate to Bac Mien Trung Seafood Company Limited with the new code DC848492, the purpose of use is commercial and service land (warehouse).

Currently, many original maps are stored in Quynh Nghia commune, the above land plot still has information about Nghia Phu Salt Production and Service Cooperative, however the area is 3,284.4m2Photo: TD

It is worth mentioning that the People's Committee of Quynh Luu district did not know about the land lease of Bac Mien Trung Seafood Company Limited before and did not have any related archived records attached. Specifically, on March 31, 2020, after receiving Official Letter 802 from the Department of Planning & Investment requesting the People's Committee of Quynh Luu district to resolve the petition of Bac Mien Trung Seafood Company Limited regarding the land lease in Quynh Nghia commune, because the People's Committee of Quynh Luu district did not receive the related records, it did not know. Therefore, the People's Committee of Quynh Luu district issued a document requesting the Bac Mien Trung Seafood Company Limited to provide complete records related to the land. However, by April 8, 2020, when responding to the Department of Planning & Investment, the People's Committee of Quynh Luu district had not yet received any information or records (although this unit had been leased the land since 2018).

Working with Mr. Nguyen Minh Thanh - Head of the Department of Natural Resources and Environment of Quynh Luu district, we requested to see the documents and information related to the land lease of Bac Mien Trung Seafood Company Limited in Quynh Nghia commune. However, after a period of searching, Mr. Thanh could only provide us with a decision to reclaim the land of the Salt Company and a document requesting to provide documents to respond to the Department of Planning and Investment as mentioned above./.

TD