Chair of Lam Dong province Tran Van Hiep has been detained and prosecuted for violations related to a trade, tourism and resort project development project. In Thanh Hoa, former provincial Party Committee Secretary and former chair of the provincial People’s Committee Nguyen Dinh Xung and two district Party Committee secretaries have been prosecuted for violations related to land in the HacThanh Tower case. 

 In Khanh Hoa, two former chairs of provinces, Le Duc Vinh and Nguyen Chien Thang, have been disciplined because of violations in land management.

In Binh Duong, former provincial Party Committee secretary Tran Van Nam and former province’s chair Tran Thanh Liem have been sentenced to prison because of violations in land management. 

In Phu Yen, former chair Pham Dinh Cu has been charged of allocating a land plot on an advantageous position (called ‘golden land’ by Vietnamese) to an investor without an auction. 

Many other cases with violations committed by officials at lower administration levels, and by staff have been discovered. Most of the officials were guilty of "violating regulations on managing and using state assets causing loss and wastefulness" in the Penal Code. 

The question is why there are so many cases related to land and so many state officials committing violations. The easiest answer would be greed of corrupt officials. They abuse their power to pave the way for their ‘back door’ enterprises to get land allocated and make illegal profits. 

However, there is another answer: the legal framework on land allocation and management is too complicated. Land and real estate are covered by many laws, such as the Land Law, Housing Land, Law on Real Estate Business, Law on Urban Planning, Law on Bidding and Investment Law. 

The laws, plus legal documents that guide the implementation of laws, comprise overlapping and controversial provisions. As a result, the laws are differently interpreted by local authorities and state agencies. 

The shortcomings, plus the lack of a mechanism on open supervision and accountability, have created the ‘legal loopholes’ that high-ranking officials can exploit to seek illegal profits. 

As a result, the land market cannot develop in a healthy way, while land resources are exploited by some individuals and organizations, and people and businesses cannot get land access. 

Dang Hung Vo, a respected real estate expert, said the problems need to be fixed by a new land law. 

Tu Giang