At the end of February 2023, the Party Committee of the Provincial People's Committee assigned the task and directed the District People's Committees to inspect and rectify violations in mineral activities, specifically at sand and gravel mines, various types of soil, etc. In order for the inspection work to be carried out with real quality, the Party Committee of the Provincial People's Committee also assigned the Department of Natural Resources and Environment to guide the District People's Committees on the content of inspection and handling.
According to the instructions of the Department of Natural Resources and Environment presented in Document No. 1435/STNMT-KS dated March 13, 2023, the inspection of law compliance in mineral activities is very elaborate and comprehensive. Comprehensive because the inspection content includes all areas: Minerals, land, environment, water resources, mine design, labor use and labor safety; implementation of financial and tax obligations to the State; and results of overcoming limitations and violations in mineral activities according to the inspection and examination conclusions of competent state agencies (if any). It is also affirmed that the inspection work will be very elaborate because in each area, the People's Committee at the district level will have to organize inspections according to each item specifically and in detail separated by the Department of Natural Resources and Environment.
As for the mineral sector, there are up to 11 items that need to be checked such as: Checking the mining capacity compared to the permitted capacity in the license; installing camera systems, weighing stations to monitor actual mining output, books and documents related to output control; statistics and inventory of mineral reserves in the licensed mining area; marking the licensed mining area and managing the mining area boundary; checking mining outside the licensed boundary... Or in the field of performing financial and tax obligations to the State, the District People's Committee will check organizations licensed to exploit minerals to perform tax obligations (mineral exploitation right granting fees, resource tax, environmental protection fee, land rent, value added tax, corporate income tax, industrial wastewater fee...); environmental restoration deposits in mineral activities (total number of deposits, number of deposits); At the same time, inspect the implementation of obligations and responsibilities to the locality and people living near the mine area. In short, to be inspected as instructed by the Department of Natural Resources and Environment, the People's Committees of the districts need to mobilize human resources from many relevant departments, offices and units.
Listening to the districts after more than 1 month since the Department of Natural Resources and Environment issued Document No. 1435/STNMT-KS, there is a delay. Approaching and learning in a few districts, it was explained that mineral inspection in the area is an annual activity. The 2022 inspection has just ended not long ago, and now it is continuing, which may cause businesses to complain, thinking that the State agency is making things difficult, so they should delay a little longer... Actually, such an explanation is reasonable and reasonable.
However, the districts need to review the inspection results of the Interdisciplinary Team established in Decision No. 3892/QD-UBND dated October 21, 2021 of the Provincial People's Committee, to see that the direction of the Party Committee of the Provincial People's Committee is necessary and urgent. Specifically, with only 13 inspected enterprises, the total amount of fines, arrears, and additional tax declarations by enterprises during the inspection period was more than 44 billion VND; of which, the fines and arrears for tax violations alone were over 18.3 billion VND.
In addition, the Interdisciplinary Delegation also pointed out many shortcomings and violations of organizations licensed to exploit minerals such as: Using land as a mine office area and waste dump but not leasing land; not installing a weighing station; not establishing complete books, vouchers, documents, and related documents to determine actual annual mining output; some enterprises exploiting beyond the permitted capacity, exploiting beyond the licensed boundary, violating mine design, building substandard fences for explosives warehouses, not fully participating in social insurance for workers, not fully training on occupational safety and hygiene, not developing incident handling and emergency response plans... And most notably, all 13 inspected enterprises had violations in the field of tax!
Moreover, the mineral sector always has many hidden complexities, there are always violations and mistakes that state management staff will never expect. A specific example is recently, in early April 2023, the Investigation Police Agency of the Provincial Police inspected and discovered that Dong Nam Company Limited was exploiting land in the area of Ru Dua mine (Nghi Hung commune, Nghi Loc district) exceeding the permitted reserve by more than 300,000m3.
Therefore, the Party Committees and authorities of the districts should carefully re-evaluate the state management of the mineral sector at both levels in the area. From there, develop a plan to organize inspections according to the direction of the Party Committee of the Provincial People's Committee and the guidance of the Department of Natural Resources and Environment. It is affirmed that this is an important and urgent task that cannot be delayed. Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha has just directed the People's Committees of provinces and centrally run cities in Document No. 2547/VPCP-CN, dated April 14, 2023: "Publicly handle the responsibility of officials, heads of agencies and organizations who cover up and assist in the occurrence of illegal mineral exploitation in the management area".
