It is known that on September 24, 2021, the Party Committee of the Provincial People's Committee issued Report No. 184/BC-BCS on state management and the situation of mineral activities in the province. Report No. 184/BC-BCS is a specific panoramic picture of state management and the situation of mineral activities in the province. In particular, it has dissected and analyzed in depth the existing problems and causes, promptly proposed solutions, and recommended to the Standing Committee of the Provincial Party Committee a very important content, which is to continue to direct Party committees at all levels to strengthen leadership and direction in the management of mineral exploitation activities.
Among the many shortcomings pointed out, the Party Committee of the Provincial People's Committee frankly acknowledged that the illegal mining situation still tends to be complicated in many localities, with many different types of minerals such as landfill, sand, gravel, white stone, etc. And therefore, it has caused resentment among the people, loss of revenue for the state budget, environmental pollution, and degraded traffic infrastructure.
In Quy Hop district, some tin and white stone mines have been closed and handed over to local authorities for management, but people are still secretly mining and exploiting. This situation is due to the sudden increase in demand for raw materials such as soil, sand and gravel, and the output from licensed mines cannot meet the demand. It can be affirmed that illegal mining activities bring in large profits, so there is a disregard for the law by the mining subjects. While the control of mineral origins has not received due attention, unlicensed units still declare and pay resource taxes, creating the legalization of illegally exploited minerals; Some investors have signed contracts with contractors to purchase minerals of unknown origin to carry out projects, especially land for filling, sand and gravel, etc. In addition, some Party committees and local authorities have not paid due attention to the protection of unexploited mineral resources, and there is even a phenomenon of avoidance in handling illegal mineral exploitation activities.
Regarding the enterprises licensed to exploit minerals, the Party Committee of the Provincial People's Committee also had very clear comments. According to regulations, enterprises must install weighing stations at the location where raw minerals are taken out of the mining area; install surveillance cameras at warehouses to store information and data. But many enterprises have not done so. Some enterprises have installed equipment but the equipment does not work, does not store relevant information and data. There are suspicions that some mining units have a larger mining output than the output declared for tax payment, but the competent authorities have not had effective solutions to handle it. Some units have lost landmarks, exploited outside the licensed scope, exceeded the permitted mining capacity, affected traffic infrastructure, etc.
Meanwhile, the inspection and examination of mineral activities in general, and thematic inspections of actual mineral exploitation output in particular, have not been carried out regularly and continuously. The handling of violations of the law related to mining design, annual mining output, environmental pollution, labor safety, etc. has not been strictly implemented. Therefore, the work of controlling actual mining output and preventing tax losses has also revealed many shortcomings.
To handle the existing problems in mineral activities, the Party Committee of the Provincial People's Committee has proposed 06 solutions and tasks. Among them, there is a solution to establish an interdisciplinary inspection team to comprehensively inspect and handle compliance with the law in mineral exploitation and trading activities, especially the mining output and inspect the state management of minerals by local authorities.
On October 11, 2021, Nghe An Provincial Party Committee issued Official Dispatch No. 646-CV/TU deploying a number of contents related to mineral activities in the province. It stated that, after reviewing Report No. 184/BC-BCS dated September 24, 2021 of the Provincial People's Committee Party Committee, the Provincial Party Committee Standing Committee discussed and concluded to assign the Provincial People's Committee Party Committee to lead the Provincial People's Committee: "Advising the Provincial Party Committee Standing Committee to issue a Directive on strengthening the Party's leadership in managing mineral activities in the province. Comprehensively inspect and examine the implementation of legal provisions on minerals for licensed mines in the area, prioritizing the inspection and examination of mines with large areas and reserves; at the same time strictly handle violations (if any)...".
Quy Hop is a locality with a large number of enterprises inspected by the two interdisciplinary teams. The district People's Committee itself was also inspected for its state management responsibilities, and there were shortcomings pointed out. However, the leaders of Quy Hop district highly appreciated the inspection results of the two interdisciplinary teams. Mr. Tran Duc Loi - Vice Chairman of Quy Hop District People's Committee discussed: The direct direction and supervision of the inspection work by the Provincial Party Committee and the Provincial People's Committee has achieved very good results, creating fairness in production and business, helping enterprises as well as state management agencies to have strong changes in awareness and action.
“Through the inspection work, many violations were detected and handled; tens of billions of dong were fined and collected to the state budget. The inspection results ensured the strictness of the law, were deterrent enough, created positive changes in law enforcement and created fairness for enterprises in mineral activities. At the same time, the inspection teams also pointed out difficulties and obstacles and guided enterprises on relevant legal regulations to avoid violations. For Quy Hop district, 2 interdisciplinary teams pointed out the shortcomings and limitations in state management. From there, it helped the district People's Committee to promptly have solutions to overcome them to improve state management in the coming time; and helped the district People's Committee to remove difficulties and obstacles in production and business activities of enterprises, creating positive changes and consensus among enterprises in the area..." - Vice Chairman of Quy Hop district People's Committee affirmed.
According to Mr. Nguyen Cong Luc - Deputy Head of the Interdisciplinary Team according to Decision No. 3892/QD-UBND, Deputy Head of the Minerals Division - Department of Natural Resources and Environment, in order for the inspection work to achieve results, the members of the Team had to go through a long and very difficult time, and had to endure a lot of pressure. Because of the pressure, right from the beginning, the Team had to propose to the competent authority to establish a Re-inspection Team to promptly review and re-examine the inspection contents that the Interdisciplinary Team had performed. “Before carrying out the task, the agency leaders thoroughly informed us of the direction of the Provincial Party Standing Committee, which is not to miss any violations of the inspected units. If we miss any, and the Inspection Team discovers violations later, we will consider responsibility. In mineral exploitation activities involving many fields, associated with many legal regulations, the workload of the members of the Team is very large. In addition, some enterprises do not fully understand the law and have negative reactions. These issues create pressure, leading to the Team recommending a re-inspection after the inspection…” – Mr. Nguyen Cong Luc confided.
But the Deputy Head of the Interdisciplinary Delegation also discussed that the leaders of the Provincial Party Committee and the Provincial People's Committee understood the pressure of the Interdisciplinary Delegation. Therefore, although the Inspection Delegation was not established, at the meetings where the Interdisciplinary Delegation periodically reported on the inspection results, the responsible people of the Provincial Party Committee and the Provincial People's Committee all gave instructions and suggested methods for performing tasks, or promptly resolved the contents of the Interdisciplinary Delegation's recommendations.
In the summary report of the 2 Interdisciplinary Teams, along with the inspection results, there is a proposal for the Provincial People's Committee to direct the inspected enterprises and People's Committees of the districts, together with relevant departments and branches, to focus on thoroughly handling violations and shortcomings. In addition, 9 solutions that need to be implemented in the coming time are proposed. One of the 9 solutions is to recommend continuing to establish a new Interdisciplinary Team to conduct inspections of a number of enterprises other than those that have been inspected.
Deputy Head of the Interdisciplinary Delegation Nguyen Cong Luc said that recently, the Provincial Party Standing Committee directly listened to the Provincial People's Committee's report summarizing the inspection results of the two Interdisciplinary Delegations. Acknowledging the inspection results of the two Interdisciplinary Delegations, the Provincial Party Standing Committee also agreed on the proposed solutions to be implemented in the coming time; and assigned the Provincial People's Committee to develop an implementation plan.
“After a long and stressful working period, we are very happy to have completed the tasks assigned by our superiors. We are also happy because the reality of the inspection work has contributed a small part to helping the Provincial Party Committee and the Provincial People's Committee to have new, close and necessary instructions for better state management of minerals. In particular, Directive No. 20-CT/TU dated December 28, 2022 of the Provincial Party Committee Standing Committee on strengthening the Party's leadership over state management of minerals in Nghe An province..." - Deputy Head of the Interdisciplinary Delegation Nguyen Cong Luc confided.
