Dialogue with Thu Thiem residents delayed

A dialogue between the Government Inspectorate and residents in five residential quarters in the three wards of Binh An, An Khanh and Binh Khanh in HCMC’s District 2 has been delayed for the second time.

The New City Thu Thiem commercial complex has been developed in the resettlement area for the Thu Thiem New Urban Area project without the prime minister’s approval

The HCMC government has announced the delay to the District 2 People’s Committee, explaining that the city is focusing on the prevention and control of the spread of Covid-19. The time for the dialogue will be announced later, news site Vietnamplus reported.

The District 2 government has been required to inform residents of the delay and cooperate with the relevant agencies to prepare a venue, paperwork and the necessary equipment for the dialogue.

The dialogue was initially scheduled to be held before the Lunar New Year holiday. However, it was delayed so that the city could better prepare for the holiday.

Earlier, Deputy Prime Minister Truong Hoa Binh had assigned the Government Inspectorate to coordinate with the Ministries of Natural Resources and Environment, Construction, Finance and Justice and the HCMC government to review the complaints of residents in the five residential quarters, hold a dialogue with them, propose solutions in line with the law and report the results to the prime minister before January 1.

At a press briefing early this year, Ha Phuoc Thang, chief of the HCMC government office, stated that the municipal government was building support policies for households within a 4.3-hectare area in Binh An Ward, whose plots of land were ascertained as being outside the boundaries of the project. The city will consult with the relevant agencies and households over the policies and will reach their final conclusions this quarter.

Thang added that the city will announce sanctions for officials who committed violations during the project’s execution this month. However, further information has yet to be announced.

Moreover, the city has yet to release information on the reclamation of more than VND26.3 trillion that it had advanced from its budget for the project; the payment of bank loans worth nearly VND4.3 trillion spent on the project; the collection of the unpaid land use fees totaling over VND1.8 trillion, plus interest, from Dai Quang Minh Real Estate Investment JSC; and the audit results of build-transfer projects in the new urban area.

Early this year, the Party Central Committee's Inspection Commission announced the results of its investigation into the violations of the standing board of the HCMC Party Committee during the 2010-2015 tenure and the Party unit of the HCMC government during the 2011-2016 tenure when handling the project.

The offenders, including former secretary of the HCMC Party Committee Le Thanh Hai, and Le Hoang Quan, former deputy secretary of the HCMC Party Committee and former chairman of the municipal government, had flouted working regulations and showed a lack of responsibility, slack leadership and poor supervision, leading to serious violations in the construction of the Thu Thiem New Urban Area.

The violations resulted in heavy losses for the State and negatively affected the country’s socioeconomic development and the livelihoods of many HCMC residents.

Tat Thanh Cang, former deputy secretary of the municipal Party Committee, was found to have violated regulations on land and those on management of investment and construction when he approved a project to build four main roads in the Thu Thiem New Urban Area and initialed a construction contract for these roads while serving as the director of the HCMC Department of Transport. SGT