According to the announcement, Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee and agencies committed violations in land planning and land use management while investing in the Thu Thiem new urban area.
Specifically, the committee issued regulations on construction management of the new urban area in an insufficient and untimely manner, calculated land use fee insufficiently and inaccurately to make payment for BT (Build-Transfer) projects.
The entire land fund of 221.68 hectares in the Thu Thiem new urban area was created with state budget but the city’s People’s Committee mainly used the land fund for paying reciprocal capital for BT (Build-Transfer) technical infrastructure projects whose investors were designated. So the committee violated regulations on auction and land use management for not organizing bid invitation for the projects and allocating land and collecting land use fee without auctioning the land use right.
In addition, the Government Inspectorate said that the committee did not abide by bidding regulations when approving the designation of Dai Quang Minh Joint Stock Company to be investor of the BT project to build four main roads in the Thu Thiem new urban area. The committee did not require the investor to make a proposal in writing, estimate the company’s experience in project design, construction, operation and management as well as its financial ability.
Furthermore, the city People’s Committee approved the project of building the four roads with the total investment capital of VND12.18 trillion ($522.53 million) but did not consult relevant agencies.
Similarly, the city People’s Committee on its own choice changed the contractor of Thu Thiem 2 Bridge BT project and the bridge design from four lanes to six lanes without reporting to higher authorities, damaging the state budget. It also put forward unsuitable construction method for the BT infrastructure project in the northern residential area.
The Government Inspectorate proposed the Prime Minister to require the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment to coordinate with the Ministry of Finance to issue documents within their jurisdiction or consult the Government on the document issue to improve regulations in order to calculate land use fee and land use right value suitably, objectively and correctly and harmonize the benefits among the state and businesses.
The Ministry of Finance should soon provide specific guidelines on the use of clean land funds and report to the Prime Minister to make payment to BT projects in general and Thu Thiem new urban area in particular.
The city People’s Committee has been proposed to establish a working group to coordinate with relevant ministries and agencies and the Government Inspectorate to review changes of the detail plan in projects which have been implemented including the residential area in the southern side of Mai Chi Tho street. They should scrutinize projects with done land allocation to recalculate land use right value and prevent state budget losses.
The city should inspect projects having investment policy or contracts but land has not been allocated to investors to organize land use right auction or bid invitation to choose investors.
The Government Inspectorate said that they would transfer the conclusion to the Central Inspection Commission to consider handling individuals and organizations subject to the management by the Politburo and the Secretariat of the Communist Party of Vietnam’s Central Committee for concerned violations.
Before December 31, 2019, violations will be transferred to investigation agency unless they are repaired.
According to the Government Inspectorate, three out of four resettlement projects in the new urban area have been built and handled over to the city People’s Committee. Currently, because many apartments in these projects are not dwelled so the city’s People’s Committee has auctioned them to convert into commercial housing.
The investor of the remaining project with 1,330 apartments has changed it from resettlement to commercial housing purpose and transfer 1,122 out of 1,228 apartments to dwellers. The city People’s Committee has liquidated the resettlement area building contract without land allocation approval by the Prime Minister and that does not accord regulations.
The Ministry of Construction’s inspectorate and the State Audit Agency will further inspect the 38.4 hectare resettlement area in the Thu Thiem new urban area and give conclusion.
