Because of land… losing officials

Lessons in land management

In fact, recently, many cadres and party members have been prosecuted, temporarily detained, brought to court, sentenced, or subjected to disciplinary measures by the Party and government due to their involvement in the matter.violations in land management and use, carry out GPMB compensation.

Typically, in early 2021, the Investigation Police Agency (Nghe An Police) issued a decision to prosecute the case and prosecute 3 subjects residing in Nghi Tien Commune (Nghi Loc) for the act of abusing their positions and powers while performing official duties. Among them, there was Mr. Luu Quang Thuong (born in 1954), former Chairman of Nghi Tien Commune People's Committee from 2004 to 2014 and Mr. Tran Cong Oanh (born in 1960), former Secretary of Nghi Tien Commune Party Committee from 2005 to 2014, Chairman of Nghi Tien Commune People's Committee from 2014 to 2020.

The subjects Tran Cong Oanh, Luu Quang Thuong, and Nguyen Van Hong were prosecuted for "abusing positions and powers while performing official duties". Photo: Vuong Linh

The reason is that during their tenure, Mr. Thuong and Mr. Oanh gave the go-ahead for Mr. Nguyen Van Hong (born in 1980), a former land official of this commune, to create fake documents requesting support for aquaculture areas damaged by natural disasters and documents supporting crop damage caused by rain and floods to withdraw more than 805 million VND from the state budget. Meanwhile, the actual amount paid to households according to the actual damage was about 83 million VND. The remaining amount of more than 722 million VND was used for other activities without documents. The authorities are continuing to investigate and clarify the case.

Police searched the house of Tran Cong Oanh - former Party Secretary and Chairman of the People's Committee of Nghi Tien Commune, Nghi Loc. Photo: Vuong Linh

Previously, in some other localities, there were also cases of former key leaders being disciplined for their involvement in illegal land sales such as in Nghia Dong, Nghia Thai (Tan Ky), My Thanh (Yen Thanh)... Or violations in preparing documents and compensation for land acquisition and clearance for projects such as the case of former Chairman of Nghi Phong Commune People's Committee (Nghi Loc) Nguyen Dinh Hai and a number of officials being disciplined for carrying out site clearance for the 72m Highway connecting Vinh - Cua Lo passing through the area. When implementing this project, Nghi Phong Commune People's Committee (Nghi Loc) conducted a review, granted, exchanged, and allocated land... to affected households.

Vinh - Cua Lo Boulevard Project. Photo: Thao Nguyen

However, in many cases, the land affected by the project was determined by the Nghi Phong commune government to have the wrong origin of land use and the increase or decrease in land area to be granted a new land use right certificate. The responsibility belongs to the former Chairman of Nghi Phong commune People's Committee Nguyen Dinh Hai and a number of related officials. In another case related to violations in compensation for site clearance of the Nghi Kim - Nghi Van drainage canal project (phase 1), officials including Vo Bien Thuy - former Deputy Director of Vinh City Land Fund Development Center; Tran Le Ngoc Tu - former cadastral officer of Hung Dong commune who was later transferred to Hong Son ward and Nguyen Xuan Tho - former Chairman of Hung Dong commune People's Committee were prosecuted.

Notably, in some cases, there was the participation of many officials as a "team". Typically, the violations occurred at the Yen Thanh Protective Forest Management Board, in order to receive additional support money and compensation for assets on land that were not accounted for in the accounting books, Phan Tien Sy - former Head of the Yen Thanh Protective Forest Management Board directed his subordinates to create 4 fake files to receive compensation that was not in accordance with regulations of more than 5 billion VND. In this case, 10 defendants were brought to trial, of which the highest person received a sentence of 5 years in prison, the lowest was 15 months of suspended imprisonment. Among them, there were 2 defendants Nguyen Duc Thien and Phan Van Minh, former Head and Deputy Head of the Department of Natural Resources and Environment of Yen Thanh district.

Defendant Phan Tien Sy - Former Head of Yen Thanh Protective Forest Management Board and accomplices at court. Photo: Tran Vu

The above cases are not only valuable lessons in State management in the field of land resources and public assets, but also lessons in management, education and control of cadres and civil servants.

Because besides the cause of inconsistency in land management policy; between the Land Law and related laws; inspection, examination, and detection of violations in land management and use are not regular; sanctions for violations of land law are not strong enough; land management by authorities at all levels is still loose and loopholes, land use in some places is still wasteful... creating loopholes for acts of corruption and profiteering, there are also causes from the lack of self-cultivation, self-evolution, and self-transformation of some officials and civil servants.

Tighten management

Through the work of receiving people, resolving complaints and denunciations, it can be seen that land is the "source" of many long-standing complaints and disputes (accounting for 70 - 80% of annual complaints). To strengthen management and prevent violations in this field, in recent years, Nghe An province has implemented many solutions to overcome shortcomings and limitations in land management and use in the area. Notably, it has strengthened the direction of strict implementation of the 2013 Land Law and documents guiding the implementation of the Law; promoted the application of information technology in land management; raised awareness, responsibility, and public ethics of officials and civil servants and resolutely handled violations.

Land Law 2013. Photo Internet

In addition, on March 13, 2020, the People's Committee of Nghe An province issued Official Dispatch No. 1359/UBND-NN on "inspecting, reviewing, and strengthening land management" in the province. In particular, it requires the Departments of Natural Resources and Environment, Finance, Planning and Investment, Construction, and Justice; People's Committees of districts, cities, and towns to inspect, review, and strengthen land management in Nghe An province. At the same time, promote propaganda and education on the Land Law in various forms, suitable for each locality, each subject of management officials at all levels, each subject of land use; effectively implement the Project "Improving land use efficiency in the period of 2017 - 2020 in Nghe An province". At the same time, well implement the work of planning and land use plans at all levels that have been approved...

The document also requires strengthening coordination between departments, branches and district-level People's Committees in attracting investment, managing investment projects, managing urban land, promptly removing difficulties and obstacles to help investors use land legally and effectively. At the same time, detect and promptly handle violations in land management, illegal land use purpose conversion in the area; enhance the responsibility of local authorities, especially key officials and cadastral, construction, and urban order management officers of commune-level People's Committees; rectify the situation of land encroachment, illegal land use purpose conversion, construction in violation of planning or issued permits; remove obstacles in compensation and site clearance; issue new and exchange Land Use Right Certificates; focus on resolving disputes, complaints, denunciations, and recommendations on land, especially complicated, crowded, prolonged, and over-level cases...

In addition, the Provincial Party Committee and Provincial People's Committee also strengthened direction to promote anti-corruption work, strengthen inspection and examination in the field of land management; strictly handle the responsibility of leaders if violations in the field of land occur.

In 2020 alone, through inspection work, violations were discovered and recommendations were made to handle 20,564 m²land, of which, it is proposed to recover 1,404 m² Land. The result has recovered for the State 1,305/1,404 m²Land rate 92.95%.

However, according to the assessment of the Provincial Steering Committee for Anti-Corruption, the work of recovering assets from violations in the land sector has encountered many limitations. After being sold, exchanged or illegally transferred to households, most of the land has been granted a Certificate of Land Use Rights or has been used to build valuable works for stable residence and settlement, long-term cultivation on the allocated land. If it has to be recovered, it will cause great damage to the people, so the recovery of land areas illegally transferred or sold cannot be carried out. In addition, the purpose of the defendants who are commune and village officials when carrying out the acts of land allocation, land sale, land lease... is mostly to use the collected money to build welfare works of the village and commune, serving the people. After being prosecuted, the defendants paid compensation, but most of them are facing economic difficulties, so the recovery of assets in these cases is often difficult to implement.

One of the plots of land illegally sold by the leaders of My Thanh commune (Yen Thanh). Photo: Document.

Therefore, in addition to focusing on reviewing to abolish, amend and supplement legal documents on land under the authority of the Provincial People's Committee; it is also recommended that the Government, ministries and central branches consider amending and supplementing inappropriate and problematic regulations in land management as required in Official Dispatch No. 1359/UBND-NN of the Provincial People's Committee. Functional branches and localities need to strengthen self-inspection, supervision and prevention of violations in the land sector; resolutely handle and remove from the apparatus those officials and civil servants who abuse their assigned duties and powers, commit acts of harassment, negativity and profiteering in resolving issues related to land and compensation for site clearance. At the same time, establish a feasible, public and transparent mechanism so that people can truly monitor land management and use.

The crime of violating regulations on land management is specifically regulated in Article 228 and Article 229 of the 2015 Penal Code. In which, a person who takes advantage of or abuses his/her position and authority to allocate land, recover, lease, allow the transfer of land use rights, or allow the change of land use purpose contrary to the provisions of law falls into one of the following cases: Rice land with an area of ​​70,000 square meters (m²) or more; special-use forest land, protective forest land, production forest land with an area of ​​100,000 square meters (m²) or more; other agricultural land and non-agricultural land with an area of ​​80,000 square meters (m²) or more; or land with land use rights value converted into money of 7,000,000,000 VND or more for agricultural land or 15,000,000,000 VND or more for non-agricultural land can be sentenced to imprisonment from 5 years to 12 years.

Offenders may also be fined from VND 10,000,000 to VND 150,000,000, banned from holding positions, practicing a profession or doing certain jobs from 1 to 5 years.