The recorded images show efforts from localities to take advantage of public assets but problems are still piling up, especially from mechanisms and laws.
Scattered on the golden land
A series of abandoned public power headquarters after commune mergers and agency relocation have been creating stains in the heart of the city, prolonging the waste of public assets, eroding people's trust.
The project worth hundreds of billions of VND is "clinically dead"
In recent years, the implementation of the policy of arranging commune-level administrative units and streamlining the administrative apparatus has helped improve the effectiveness of State management in many localities. However, a consequence is the situation of public power headquarters being abandoned, used for the wrong purpose or ineffectively, especially in key areas such as Thanh Hoa, Thua Thien - Hue, Nghe An. In fact, hundreds of headquarters with prime locations - considered "golden land" - are abandoned and seriously degraded while the government is still struggling to find a solution.
According to statistics, from 2019 to 2021 in Thanh Hoa province alone, there were more than 500 vacant offices and public real estate. In Thanh Hoa City, this situation is serious, especially in commune and ward headquarters after the merger and administrative agencies have moved to new workplaces.
Along Le Loi Boulevard - the arterial road of the city - many old public power heads lying dormant in the door lock, weeds growing overgrown. The old headquarters of Thanh Hoa Radio and Television Station, located at Le Loi - Hac Thanh intersection, with an area of thousands of square meters, has left no years after the agency moved to the new headquarters. On the top of the road, the old headquarters of the State Treasury and Social Insurance of Thanh Hoa City also fell into the same scene, no one to look after, broken glass doors, mossy walls, patchy.
Notably, Ham Rong Conference Center - a project with an investment of hundreds of billions of VND - is currently abandoned in the heart of the city. People in Ham Rong ward said that after the project was completed, the center only organized a few events and then "shelved them", did not exploit them regularly, causing frustration because of budget waste.
This situation does not stop at the city level. In Quang Xuong district, after Quang Phuc and Quang Vong communes merged, the headquarters of the old Quang Phuc commune - built in 2018 with an investment of more than 5 billion VND - has not been completed, but has been abandoned since the merger. Halls, health stations, primary schools... are all in the same fate, without any users.
Another typical example is the old An Hoach ward headquarters. In 2018, this ward merged with Dong Hung commune to form An Hung ward. The government chose Dong Hung headquarters as the main workplace, the rest was left fallow and now degraded.
The more central, the more... abandoned
In Hue City, the Lao Dong Newspaper reporter recorded along Le Loi route - one of the busy central streets - with dozens of old offices of the abandoned public authorities. Among them are the headquarters of the Department of Health, the Department of Education and Training, the Department of Tourism, the Department of Construction, the Literature and Arts Association ... All of these agencies have moved to the centralized administrative area of Hue City since April 2022, leaving empty blocks.
Mr. Tran Dinh Vinh Loc - Chairman of the People's Committee of Khe Tre town (old Nam Dong district, now merged into Phu Loc district) - said that the locality currently has up to 20 surplus headquarters after the merger. The town government can only take advantage of 2 of them to build new workplaces for the People's Committee and the town police, the remaining 18 headquarters are in a "suspended" situation, waiting for handling solutions.
"We have to mobilize police forces to patrol and protect to avoid the situation of bad guys breaking in and destroying us," Mr. Loc shared.
In Vinh City (Nghe An), Nguyen Thi Minh Khai Street - considered the city's most expensive land price - still has works that used to be the headquarters of state agencies but are now abandoned. The old headquarters of Nghe An Provincial People's Court and the Provincial People's Procuracy, although moved for many years, has not been effectively reused. A part of the old headquarters of the Procuracy is currently being used as a car wash location, the rest is used for growing grass, broken roofs, and peeling walls.
According to the Department of Finance of Nghe An province, up to now, the whole province has 278 offices and public service facilities that are no longer in use, used inefficiently or for the wrong purpose. This figure is expected to increase further when the next administrative unit reorganization rounds are implemented.
After the merger of administrative units, many old headquarters were abandoned, but the handling of public assets was slow due to problems in determining ownership rights, handling authority or waiting for instructions from superiors. Some localities have proposed changing the purpose of use such as leasing, auctioning, or being featured as club headquarters, community cultural and learning centers, etc. However, the lack of specific instructions, complicated legal procedures, and lack of synchronization between departments and branches have caused many projects to fall into a deadlock.
