Land recovery in violation of regulations, compensation to the wrong subjects
On July 25, according to Lao Dong, the Lang Son Provincial Inspectorate has just pointed out a series of violations against the Hoang Van Thu resettlement area expansion project, Dong Dang town (now Dong Dang commune).
According to the inspection conclusion, from 2015 to before July 2021, the People's Committee of the old Cao Loc district reclaimed more than 42,000 m2 of land exceeding the scale approved by the Provincial People's Council, of which more than 2,400 m2 was rice land reclaimed without a resolution of the Provincial People's Council, seriously violating the 2013 Land Law.
More seriously, the old Cao Loc district conducted an inventory and prepared compensation plans for 41 cases even before issuing the notice of land recovery, which violated the legal order. There are cases where there is no decision to reclaim land but compensation is still approved. The verification of land users is not strict, leading to at least 17 cases of confusion among the compensation subjects.
One of the obvious violations was the payment of more than 2.8 billion VND in compensation to 10 households to illegally build houses on agricultural land, while these cases did not meet the support conditions according to regulations.
After reviewing under the direction of the Provincial People's Committee, the amount adjusted down was more than 1.4 billion VND, but by the time of inspection, more than 1.2 billion VND had not yet been recovered.
In addition, more than 30 million VND was wrongly paid to two households for illegal construction and 20.8 million VND was supported to rent houses to six unqualified cases. All of these incorrect payments are required to be recovered.
In addition, the group B technical infrastructure project was expected to be implemented in only 4 years but has lasted until 11 years (2014-2025). The main reason is due to problems in land acquisition, site clearance and adjustment of total investment.
The total investment capital from the state budget as of 2024 is more than 71 billion VND, nearly equivalent to the total disbursement value. However, the cost of site clearance alone has increased by more than 6 billion VND compared to the initial approval level, without adjusting the total investment according to the Construction Law.
During the implementation process, lax construction supervision led to a series of problems with lighting poles in Area A being constructed with the wrong design size, without documents to request changes; many payment items were not in accordance with unit prices and actual volumes, causing a difference of more than 111 million VND, forcing them to be revoked.
The geological survey also revealed many shortcomings: from incorrect determination of the volume of filling, to applying un coefficient prices that are not suitable for the terrain. The survey, design, acceptance documents are incomplete, and the construction logs are incomplete, causing the project to continuously adjust the design.
Responsibilities are unclear, only " learn from experience"
The Provincial Inspectorate determined that the main responsibility belongs to the People's Committee of Cao Loc district (old) and related units including: District Land Fund Development Center, Department of Natural Resources and Environment (now Department of Agriculture and Environment), District Construction Investment Project Management Board, and consulting unit is Urban Planning and Construction Consulting Joint Stock Company.
However, instead of requesting a review or clarification of responsibilities, the Chief Inspector of the province only requested "learning from experience", with the reason that the violations occurred in the period of 2014-2021 and the People's Committee of Cao Loc district was dissolved from July 1, 2025 according to the administrative merger.
The Hoang Van Thu resettlement area expansion project has a scale of more than 4 hectares, expected to contribute to the socio-economic development of Dong Dang town. However, after more than 10 years of implementation, many households still have to live in temporary houses or rent houses at high costs, because the resettlement area is not yet completed.
In March 2025, the People's Committee of Lang Son province issued a decision to extend the project implementation period to the end of September 2025. According to the leader of the old Cao Loc district, the project has been mostly completed, with only a few small items remaining.
Previously, Lao Dong Newspaper reported the situation of "S streaking 10 years in a temporary house because the resettlement area is not finished" recording many people upset because their housing rights were "suspended" for a long time, while the billion-dollar project was behind schedule, violating the law.
