Surviving after termination of illegal land lease at offices in Vinh City

(Baonghean) -Recently, many agencies and administrative units have taken advantage of the land frontage to lease land for the wrong purpose. This not only violates State regulations, but also causes disorder, traffic safety, urban landscape and especially causes public outrage. To overcome this situation, the Provincial People's Committee has issued 3 official dispatches requesting agencies and units to immediately stop using land for the wrong purpose.

Immediately after receiving the official dispatch from the Provincial People's Committee requesting an end to the misuse of land, many agencies and units in Vinh City seriously implemented it. On Nguyen Thi Minh Khai Street, one of the busiest business streets in Vinh and also the "headquarters" of many state agencies and administrative units, many rows of shops and kiosks have closed and hung signs of changing business locations. For many years, the Department of Education and Training has allocated about 30 square meters of land for private enterprises to rent to build business stores, but after receiving the official dispatch from the province, it terminated the contract and reclaimed that business location. Also on Nguyen Thi Minh Khai Street, the Department of Finance - Prices, the Department of Justice, and the Department of Culture - Sports - Tourism simultaneously terminated the lease contract and reclaimed the business kiosks.

On Le Hong Phong Street, there has long been a bustling "dusty rice street", which often causes disorder and traffic safety during rush hour. People in this area have repeatedly petitioned the authorities about this complicated situation but it has not been resolved. This location belongs to the land area leased by the North Central Hydrometeorological Station. Mr. Nguyen Xuan Chinh - Deputy Director of the North Central Hydrometeorological Station said: "After the unit received the provincial document requesting to stop the illegal use of land, we notified the businesses and extended the time to reclaim the land. Due to the signing of short-term lease contracts, there was no difficulty in terminating the contracts with the businesses and the clearance of 17 business kiosks on the unit's land area was completed on April 19".

Kiosk on Nguyen Duc Canh Street (Vinh City) after land was recovered for improper use

On Le Hong Phong Street, a row of kiosks specializing in photocopying and printing of an armed forces unit has also been confiscated... Currently, walking along the streets of Vinh City, you can see many rows of kiosks closed and hanging signs of changing business locations. This movement shows that many agencies and administrative units are implementing the confiscation of land for the wrong purpose. But a current concern is that many agencies and units have confiscated the shops and kiosks and then... left them there, leading to the situation of shops and kiosks being deserted because they were smashed, demolished, had their roofs removed, their doors removed... creating a "disgraceful" appearance for Vinh city.

At the intersection of Nguyen Thi Minh Khai Street and Nguyen Duc Canh Street, there is a "desolate" scene of empty, shabby and trashy kiosks, because they have been demolished and their doors have been removed. These are kiosks that the Department of Justice has confiscated but has not yet renovated. The failure to fully implement responsibilities while confiscating and returning land for the wrong purpose has occurred at a number of agencies and units, but there has not been a timely solution. Mr. Nguyen Xuan Chinh - Deputy Director of the North Central Hydrometeorological Station, said: "After dismantling the rented kiosk, the unit had to spend hundreds of millions of VND to rent an excavator, level the ground, rebuild the fence...". Not every unit can do this, and in the very short time it took to build the agency fence, the North Central Hydrometeorological Station was assessed by the authorities as one of the units that performed well in the confiscation of land and created an urban landscape in Vinh City.

It is known that in the process of reclaiming land used for the wrong purpose, complicated problems have arisen at some agencies and units. At the Provincial Political School, with the advantage of a prime land plot located on two main roads, Le Hong Phong and Hermann, in 2009 the school signed a contract to lease the first floor of the dining hall and a level 4 house with an area of ​​498m2, the lease term is 10 years (rental price 6 million VND/month). The lease contract has a condition: If the Political School unilaterally terminates the contract, it must compensate for the rental fee for 10 years, and must refund the amount of over 1 billion VND that the lessee has spent on renovation and repair. Because it has to compensate such a large amount of money, it is very difficult for the Political School to liquidate the contract. On April 15, the interdisciplinary inspection team drew up a record of administrative violations in the field of management and use of state assets and the total amount of illegal property rental at the Provincial Political School up to January 2013 was 240 million VND. The interdisciplinary inspection team requested the Political School to strictly terminate the illegal property rental. Talking to us, Mr. Tran Viet Linh - Vice Principal of the Provincial Political School, said: "The school has worked with the property lessee and proposed to terminate the contract, and at the same time issued an official dispatch requesting to terminate the contract and hand over the dining area on July 1, 2013". Through investigation, it is known that in the name of the property lessee (Mr. Le Anh Xuan), but in reality, the land area with the illegal purpose is currently being exploited and used by Restaurant 333 and the NEOLING International English Center. This matter is very complicated and the handling will be difficult.

The Provincial Cultural Center is also facing difficulties in the process of handling leased land located within the premises of the unit. Since 2003, when this location was owned by the Provincial Library, a contract was signed with the Central Construction and Import-Export Trading Joint Stock Company to lease 350 square meters of land for 15 years, of which the frontage facing Nguyen Van Cu Street is up to 50 meters long. The initial purpose of the lease was to open a cafe, and then due to unfavorable business, the enterprise divided this land area into kiosks for sublease. After the Cultural Center received the headquarters from the Provincial Library, it invited the enterprise to work many times to discuss and liquidate the contract, but encountered many difficulties... Because of being bound by the terms in the contract signed to lease the property, currently there are some agencies and units having difficulty in resolving and liquidating the contract with the lessee. This is one of the main reasons leading to the delay in recovering land used for the wrong purpose in some agencies and administrative units.

Although there are difficulties and problems in the land recovery process, it is clear that agencies and administrative units that lease land in violation of regulations must be held responsible and competent authorities need to promptly handle this violation.

Article and photos: Hoang Vinh