Bypassing the commune, the village chief sold agricultural land.

(Baonghean) - Although the Party Cell and the Village Front Working Committee did not agree, and the commune inspected and suspended the transaction, Mr. Nguyen Sy Duc, Head of Village 21, Quynh Vinh Commune (Hoang Mai Town), carried out 4 "transfers" of agricultural land, and even "allowed" the transferee to use the land long-term for residential purposes.

In mid-August 2017, Nghe An Newspaper received a petition from Mr. Le Dang Nham, resident of village 21, Quynh Vinh commune (Hoang Mai town) accusing Mr. Nguyen Sy Duc, head of village 21, of serious violations of the law.

Arbitrary sale of agricultural land

The petition stated: In 2013, Mr. Nguyen Sy Duc, in the name of the village chief, held a meeting with the villagers to propose selling agricultural land to build rural roads. When the Party Cell brought this issue to the discussion, the Party members did not agree. The incident was reported by the Party Cell Secretary of Village 21 to the Party Committee and People's Committee of Quynh Vinh Commune. After that, the commune working group went to the village to work and assigned the Party Cell Secretary and the village chief to immediately stop the sale of land, otherwise they would be disciplined before the collective.

Two agricultural plots in Tau Voi field were sold by Mr. Nguyen Sy Duc - Head of Village 21. Photo: NL

However, Mr. Nguyen Sy Duc still sold 4 agricultural plots, totaling 1,926 square meters on the main road to the commune People's Committee and behind the commune People's Committee for 255.5 million VND. Of the money collected, Mr. Duc spent a small part of it on the hamlet to build the village road, and pocketed and divided the rest.

According to Mr. Nham, in response to Mr. Duc’s illegal actions, the people of village 21 have submitted a petition to the People’s Committee of Hoang Mai town, but up to now, they have not received a response. Not only that, in July 2017, Mr. Nguyen Sy Duc was elected as village chief.

Verification at village 21, Quynh Vinh commune, many party members, grassroots cadres and people were indignant at the behavior of Mr. Nguyen Sy Duc. And they presented many documents proving that Mr. Nguyen Sy Duc, in his role as village chief, illegally sold agricultural land. Among them, there were 3 minutes of transfer and conversion of agricultural land made at 9:00 on April 12, 2013; one minute made at 2:00 p.m. on March 21, 2013 (AL).

In the minutes dated April 12, Mr. Nguyen Sy Duc transferred 3 plots of agricultural land in the fields of Gióng and Tàu Voi to 5 households (including 1 plot of 875 square meters of agricultural land belonging to Mr. Duc's own family). One copy clearly stated the land use rights of the transferee as: "The transferee is entitled to use the land after fully handing over the money and has the right to use the land for long-term housing."

As for the transfer minutes dated March 21, 2013, it is stated as "converting agricultural land to raw materials for building concrete roads in the village". Accordingly, village 21 has 1 rice field in the Ruc area, granted under Decree 64/CP with a total area of ​​341m2; transferred to Mr. Le Xuan Binh and Ms. Dau Thi Hong (residing in village 18, Quynh Vinh commune) to get 12 trucks of stone (5m3/truck); 7 trucks of sand (5m3/truck) with a total value in money of 15.5 million VND.

Checking the land use of the plots of land that Mr. Nguyen Sy Duc had arbitrarily transferred showed that the transferee had built boundary markers, filled the land with soil to plant trees, etc. Some plots even had houses built on them.

There are signs of personal gain

According to the cadres and people of village 21, Mr. Nguyen Sy Duc intended to sell the land since 2012. To carry out his plan, he suggested to the village Party Cell "to sell the land to get money to build internal roads in the village". However, the village's sale of agricultural land was beyond its authority and violated the law, so the Party Cell did not agree. In the Party Cell's record book, the regular meeting on December 3, 2012 clearly stated that "The Party Cell of village 21 has come to the conclusion that it does not agree with the village chief's sale of land".

The 1.2km long, 1.2m wide concrete road was built in 2013 but has not yet been finalized. Photo: PB

Mr. Nguyen Duc Tuy - Secretary of the Party Cell of Village 21 discussed: The Party Cell has requested the Village Chief to immediately cancel the land sale plan. Then, it reported to the commune leaders to have a timely handling plan. The Commune People's Committee has set up a team to inspect and issued a document to suspend. However, illegal agricultural land transfers still occur...".

After verification, on December 5, 2012, the delegation of Quynh Vinh Commune People's Committee led by Mr. Vu Le Cong - Vice Chairman of the Commune People's Committee had a meeting with the Executive Committee of Village 21. At this meeting, Mr. Truong Minh Hanh - Vice Chairman of the Inspection Committee of Quynh Vinh Commune Party Committee determined that the minutes of the meeting of the Village Front Committee to convert land for traffic roads were not in accordance with regulations, because Mr. Nguyen Sy Duc was the village chief and also the chair.

Mr. Vu Le Nhan - Head of the People's Inspectorate of the commune determined that the land sale was a violation of the law; assigned responsibility to the Secretary and Head of Village 21 to immediately suspend the transfer and conversion of land. Mr. Vu Le Cong - Vice Chairman of the People's Committee of Quynh Vinh commune concluded: "Assign responsibility to comrade Nguyen Duc Tuy - Secretary of the Party Cell and Mr. Nguyen Sy Duc - Head of the village to immediately suspend the conversion of land to build roads, if the land is sold, the collective will be disciplined."

One thing that makes cadres, party members and people of village 21 very upset is that up to now, the construction of a 1,200m long, 1.2m wide concrete road from 2013 to now has not been settled. And no one knows how the money from selling agricultural land is collected and spent. According to them, to build the road, 175 households in the village paid 400,000 VND/household. In addition, the total amount of money from selling the 4 plots of land above is 255.5 million VND; minus the compensation for households selling agricultural land, the difference is 115 million VND.

“When asked to settle the account, Mr. Duc only presented a summary of the cost of pouring concrete roads that he had prepared himself. But this settlement was inaccurate because the villagers had already paid nearly half. We think that Mr. Duc had appropriated a part of the money from selling the land…” - Mr. Le Dang Nham said.

The summary of the budget for pouring concrete roads that Mr. Nguyen Sy Duc himself prepared and kept at the Party Cell of Village 21 is very sketchy. Photo: NL

Checking the summary of the concrete road pouring budget (April 26, 2013) provided by the Executive Committee of Village 21, it was extremely sketchy, completely failing to ensure the principles of financial revenue and expenditure. Faced with this reality, we had a working session with the People's Committee of Quynh Vinh Commune. According to Mr. Vu Le Hung - Chairman of the People's Committee of Quynh Vinh Commune, the case of Mr. Nguyen Sy Duc selling agricultural land was concluded by the Inspectorate of Hoang Mai Town to be beyond his authority, violating the Land Law. The People's Committee of the Commune issued a disciplinary warning to Mr. Duc and dismissed him from the position of village chief for the 2015 - 2017 term. In July 2017, Mr. Nguyen Sy Duc was re-elected as village chief.

“It is not that Mr. Duc has not violated any laws, but at this stage, the commune is waiting for the conclusion of the inspection by the competent authority. If it is concluded that Mr. Duc has violated laws, we will dismiss him from his position as village chief,” Mr. Hung said.

Nhat Lan - Pham Bang

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