From a scientific perspective, on May 29th, 2020, in Hanoi, the Institute of Strategy and Inspection Science held a scientific seminar "State management of land from the practice of inspection and settlement of complaints and denunciations about land in Thu Thiem and Dong Tam”. Attending the seminar were representatives of the agencies: Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, Ministry of Justice, Vietnam Lawyers Association, Hanoi University of Home Affairs, Inspectorate of Hanoi, Central Committee for Citizen Reception, Journal Inspectors, experts, scientists and all officials and employees of the Institute of Strategy and Science Inspectorate. Dr. Nguyen Quoc Van, ISSI’s Director was a host of the Seminar.
At the seminar, Mr. Nguyen Van Kim, Former Acting Head of Legal Department, Government Inspectorate, Head of Working Group reviewed and checked the accuracy and legality of inspection conclusions regarding Dong Tam’s case. The state management of land in Dong Tam has many shortcomings and inadequacies expressed in some contents, namely: The process of land handover between the military and the subjects to be recovered, compensation, temples compensation for implementation is not tight, it is conducted through many times, inadequate records and documents, so when conducting inspection, verification has encountered many difficulties. After the land was handed over, the military units did not promptly carry out procedures to request the authority to grant land according to regulations, the planting of boundary markers was not timely, and the land management was still wrong. On the other hand, some officials of the People's Committee of Dong Tam Commune have committed many violations, loosened management to households illegally constructing on defense land, confirming the inheritance, donation and transaction of illegally authorization
Mr. Dinh Dang Lap, Senior Inspector, Department I, Government Inspectorate, a members of the Inspection Team; the members of the Working Group reviewed and checked the accuracy and legality of the Conclusions on inspection of Thu Thiem case, and members of the Working Group in service of organizing the dialogue identified the content of complaints and denunciations at Thu Thiem. The public believe that the land acquisition of the City People's Committee was not in accordance with the regulations, and reclaimed outside the planning boundary under Decision No. 367 / TTg of June 4, 1996 of the Prime Minister Government; proposed inspection of 160 hectares of resettlement; reviewed compensation rates for households and considered resettlement arrangements.
Regarding the causes of the violations, according to Mr. Lap, the state management of land is still limited, inconvenient, the implementation of all levels and branches is still lacking; the direction and the work of operating are still embarrassing, inconsistent and illegal; inspection and examination to the propaganda campaign to encourage people to comply with the law has not been regular and timely. In addition, the quality of planning is not high, asynchronous, and lack of long-term vision leads to adjustment of the planning many times, land allocation and land lease have not been implemented through auction of land – used rights; specific methods of determining land prices are still inadequate, the land prices are not close to market prices; Land acquisition, compensation, support and resettlement are slow, not in compliance with the law.
Thereby, Mr. Dinh Dang Lap proposed, reviewed and completed to continue the implementation of the planning of Thu Thiem, including 4.3 hectares of Quarter 1, Binh An Ward, District 2 in accordance with provisions of law; issue specific guidelines on the use of land fund to make payment for compensation projects. At the same time, it is to recover and refund immediately the advance money from the State budget in contravention of regulations that have invested in Thu Thiem until September 30, 2018, VND 26,315,905 million; to have a solution to mobilize legal capital to pay back bank loans invested in Thu Thiem of 4,286,255 million VND.
In addition, it is necessary to check and review projects that have been approved and signed contracts to implement projects using land with investors but not yet allocated land for auction of land - used rights or bidding according to regulations; organized the auction of land - used rights or bidding for investor selection projects for the remaining 55 land lots, including land plots which have been notified to stop by payment for BT projects inside and outside Thu Thiem. Moreover, it is necessary to review each specific case that people are complaining about, especially households located in an area of about 4.3 hectares outside the planning boundary of Quarter 1, Binh An Ward, District 2 to compensate and support resettlement appropriately for the public, end the complaint soon.
Conclusion at Seminar, PhD. Nguyen Quoc Van, ISSI’s Director emphasized that the seminar shared information and comments from a scientific and practical perspective around a very large, complicated and interesting topic. Participants also pointed out the shortcomings and limitations in the provisions of the law as well as the limitations in the implementation of the provisions of the law on planning, land management about difficulties, wicked problems in the inspection process of state management and implementation of the law on land used planning and management; propose a number of solutions to improve the law and the efficiency of state management of land used planning and management.
Writer: Dau Hien
Photo taker: Huu Thang
Translator: Ngo Thu Trang