Knowing clearly about the "fame" of the Project to build a 2-storey school building and campus of Nghi Thai Commune Kindergarten, Nghi Loc District - the project had a poor construction condition, was suspended for repair, but found something worth celebrating...
On May 15, 2022, on Facebook, some accounts circulated images of a narrow construction space, with rows of crooked formwork support piles and unevenly spaced iron mesh. Along with the photos, there was "half-closed, half-open" information that guided readers to understand that there was a state of sloppy construction, with signs of fraud.
A few days later, information about this situation was identified as being at the project to build a 2-storey school building and the campus of Nghi Thai Kindergarten, Nghi Loc District. The person who told us was a colleague working at a central press agency based in Nghe An. He revealed: “The discovery of the sloppy construction unit was thanks to the Community Supervision Board…”.
Listening to him, I was surprised. Because detecting violations in the construction sector is not simple, while the Community Supervision Board at the grassroots level often consists of members who work part-time, do not have deep expertise, and have no budget for supervision activities, or if there is, it is small, symbolic in nature... That is why, in the eyes of many people, community supervision work is like "a vase on the conference table. Having it is fine, not having it is fine". Knowing that his colleagues were skeptical, he calmly said: "We went to Nghi Thai to work, to the scene, and reported the news. The Community Supervision Board of the commune discovered this situation early, reminded the construction unit, and even had a detailed report requesting the investor to inspect and direct the correction of violations...".
With evidence and evidence, he presented the Report "Results of supervision of the construction of a 2-storey, 8-room school building and the campus of Nghi Thai Commune Kindergarten". Report No. 02-BC/BGS was prepared by the Community Investment Supervision Board of the Nghi Thai Commune Fatherland Front Committee on May 14, 2022, presenting coherently, clearly, and specifically stating the violations. The content of Report 02-BC/BGS is as follows:
"In order to ensure that the construction of works in the commune in general and the project "Construction of a 2-storey, 8-room school building and the campus of Nghi Thai Commune Kindergarten" in particular take place in accordance with the approved design estimate report. On the morning of May 14, 2022, the Community Investment Supervision Board of the Nghi Thai Commune Fatherland Front Committee conducted actual supervision of the construction of the project "Construction of a 2-storey, 8-room school building and the campus of Nghi Thai Commune Kindergarten". After supervision, the Board held a meeting and agreed on the report, and at the same time proposed the following contents:
1. Regarding the structure of the project: According to the approved design drawing, the steel roof of the first floor of the 2-storey school building is steel phi 10, woven in 2 layers, A150. However, through actual inspection and supervision, it shows that: The steel roof of the first floor is woven in A200; in addition, at some joints, the placement is not suitable for the estimate, the steel path is not enough D.
2. Regarding the formwork: At the time of supervision, the formwork was erected and supported improperly. The formwork support piles were supported on sand, not on hard ground. The piles were crooked, not vertical, and had no horizontal or diagonal bracing. Many piles had damaged legs.
Therefore, to ensure that the project is carried out in accordance with the design estimate, to avoid loss and waste of investment capital, and to affect the quality of the project, the Community Investment Supervision Board reports the results, requests the Commune People's Committee - Project Investor to conduct inspections and direct the contractor to promptly correct the above errors before implementing the next items.
From information from colleagues, we contacted Mr. Nguyen Duc Thanh - Vice Chairman of the Provincial Fatherland Front Committee, we connected with the Fatherland Front Committee of Nghi Loc district, then were introduced to Nghi Thai to meet the Front organization of this commune.
The day of returning to Nghi Thai, the incident had passed for half a month. Chairman of the Nghi Thai Commune Fatherland Front Committee, Mr. Dang Van Phuong said that, immediately after receiving the Report of the Community Investment Supervision Board, the Commune People's Committee (investor - PV) organized an inspection, requiring the construction unit to correct the violations. The incident was then reported by a number of interested press agencies, so the District People's Committee also inspected and then concluded. As for the construction unit, before the results of the supervision of the Community Investment Supervision Board, they were completely convinced. Therefore, along with the shortcomings pointed out by the District People's Committee, they organized to complete the correction.
Mr. Dang Van Phuong said: “The Community Investment Supervision Board was established by the Commune Fatherland Front Committee to supervise infrastructure construction investment projects in the area in accordance with regulations, including the Kindergarten Construction Investment Project. Comrade Nguyen Xuan Van - Vice Chairman of the Fatherland Front Committee was appointed as Head of the Board. Previously, Comrade Van was the Head of the Commune Police, now he is a Front official and Deputy Head of the Party Committee's Inspection Committee, so he is knowledgeable about supervision work. Specifically, how the supervision is done, Comrade Van will discuss directly with you guys...”.
The Nghi Thai Commune Community Investment Supervision Board was established on January 12, 2022, with 7 members. Including 2 front officials, the President of the Farmers' Association, the President of the Women's Association, the Secretary of the Youth Union, the Vice President of the Veterans' Association of the commune, and the Head of the Thai Tho Hamlet Front Board, where the project was built. According to the Head of the Board, Nguyen Xuan Van, the contractor constructed the fence system before constructing the 2-storey school building. The construction phase of the fence and the foundation of the 2-storey school building ensured the approved design. On May 7-8-9, 2022, when supervising the construction of the formwork and steel weaving for pouring the first floor, the members of the Board found that the technical standards were not met and that the design was not followed. Immediately after that, the people directly performing the construction were reminded. But instead of accepting and correcting, they showed an unpleasant attitude. Realizing that the situation was not stable, which would lead to poor quality of the project, the Board recorded images of formwork construction, steel weaving, etc., and then prepared a report to send to the Party Committee and the People's Committee of the commune. "The content of the report is as you know...", said Head of the Board Nguyen Xuan Van.
Regarding supervision work, according to Head of the Committee Nguyen Xuan Van, members carry it out regularly, right from when the contractor organizes the construction of the project. The supervision time is organized at the end of the day, after the end of administrative working hours. “Supervising the construction of basic construction works is a difficult job. In addition to requiring professional knowledge, there are many sensitive issues, so we have specific assignments. Each time supervision is carried out, there must be 3 members participating…”, Mr. Nguyen Xuan Van confided. Then he said that despite the pressure, the members are always responsible for the work, because they know that the Party Committee, the government and the people in the area support and highly agree with the supervision activities. “The work is stressful and difficult, but I always feel this support, I feel shared…”, he confided.
In the documents provided to us by the Commune People's Committee, there is a Field Inspection Record made at 9:30 a.m. on May 23, 2022, chaired by the Nghi Loc District People's Committee. The content of which shows that from May 14 to 20, 2022, the construction unit has repaired. However, due to the rainy weather, the repair work is still slow. On-site inspection, according to the design of D10, a150 floor steel, some positions are woven with D10a200 floor steel; the design of D6, a100 beam head steel belt, but some positions are woven with a200 beam head steel belt; some steel joints have not reached 30D as prescribed and are connected in the wrong position; the tie piles supporting the formwork of the 2nd floor are supported on the sand in some positions.
The inspection team concluded: The investor is required to direct the project management unit, supervision consultant, Community Supervision Board and construction unit to construct beam, floor and joint reinforcement according to the approved design documents; revise the formwork bracing of the 2nd floor to ensure compliance with regulations; install signs and mix design tables according to regulations. The completion is required before May 30, 2022, and invite relevant parties to accept according to regulations.
Looking at the minutes, it can be seen that the Inspection Team includes the construction unit (Viet Tien Construction and Design Consulting Joint Stock Company) and the supervision consultant (589 Construction Investment and Design Consulting Joint Stock Company). The investor representative was asked: "How much is the budget paid to the supervision consultant? Why did the supervision consultant not detect the sloppy construction and design errors?". The investor representative said that the total budget of the project was 8.8 billion VND, of which the supervision consultant budget was over 200 million VND, but the supervision consultant did not detect the violations of the construction unit. The investor was also asked: "How will the investor handle the supervision consultant?". This question was not answered by the investor representative!
Before our discussion with the investor's representative, Head of the Board Nguyen Xuan Van said that it was only on the day Nghi Loc District People's Committee inspected the site that they met with the consultant's supervisor. He said: "Throughout the supervision process, the members of the Board have never met with the consultant's supervisor. The members also asked the construction team but they did not know anything...". Mr. Van also said that in fact, the project had added 2 more rooms, bringing the total number of classrooms in the 2-storey building to 10. However, this addition had not been edited in the design documents to be handed over to the investor and the Supervisory Board. Therefore, after the construction unit corrected the violations and completed the pouring of concrete on the first floor, the Board reported to the Party Committee, requesting the investor to suspend construction until they provided complete documents...
In Nghi Thai, we contacted and discussed with Mr. Nguyen Van Thong - Party Secretary about the concerns of Mr. Nguyen Xuan Van. According to the Nghi Thai Party Secretary, at a recent meeting on the construction of the school building and the Kindergarten campus, the investor was asked to urge the construction unit and design consultant to complete the documents and hand them over to the Community Investment Supervision Board. He told the Nghi Thai Party Secretary that it is necessary to ask the investor to evaluate, consider the responsibility and take disciplinary action against the supervising consultant. Mr. Nguyen Van Thong affirmed that he would pay attention to this content...
During the time of studying community supervision work in Nghi Thai, we also worked with the Nghi Loc District Fatherland Front Committee. Mr. Dang Khac Than - Vice Chairman of the District Fatherland Front Committee acknowledged that the supervision work of the Community Investment Supervision Board still faces many difficulties. One of the difficulties that he spoke frankly about was the favoritism of grassroots officials towards construction contractors and supervision consultants. "This is a reality that exists. There are contractors with very wide relationships, leading to the favoritism of local leaders, affecting the quality of activities of the Community Investment Supervision Board...", Mr. Dang Khac Than shared.
But that is why, according to the Vice Chairman of the Nghi Loc District Fatherland Front Committee, the fact that the Nghi Thai Community Investment Supervision Board overcame pressure and difficulties to promptly detect and prevent violations is truly commendable. He said: “We went to Nghi Thai to inspect the community investment supervision work. Checking the supervision records, there were some points that were not really up to standard according to regulations, but the results were very good. The supervision results not only made the construction unit admit and correct mistakes, but also received the approval and recognition of the local Party Committee, government and people. Therefore, the Nghi Loc District Fatherland Front Committee has conveyed this information for the local Community Investment Supervision Boards to learn and follow...”.
