The situation of abandoned and degraded surplus land and offices is a difficult problem when implementing the policy of merging administrative units and streamlining the apparatus nationwide.
In the article "Anti-waste", General Secretary To Lam emphasized: "We must resolutely fight waste in the management and use of public assets, especially land, headquarters, etc. Focus on thoroughly solving the causes of waste of public assets, natural resources, resources to care for the people and develop the country".
Lao Dong Newspaper published a series of articles "Finding solutions for abandoned land and offices in Quang Nam" - where there are nearly 400 surplus and wasteful offices and land. At the same time, propose solutions to effectively use these resources, contributing to promoting sustainable development.
Abandoned administrative center in poor district
Although a poor district in Quang Nam, within 35 years (from 1984 to 2019), the mountainous district of Nam Giang has relocated the district's Administrative Center (ADC) 3 times.
The administrative center of Nam Giang district was initially located in Ben Giang, Ca Ty commune, then moved to Thanh My town, then moved back to Ben Giang. In 2019, the district's administrative boundary was once again rebuilt in Thanh My town, with a total cost of about 100 billion VND and has been operating until now.
At the time of the new TTHC in 2019, Nam Giang was one of the 74 poorest districts in the country in the period of 2021-2025, with 7,265 households and more than 26,000 people. Of which, more than 70% are ethnic minorities.
Local leaders admitted that the relocation of district administrative boundaries is to meet the development needs in each specific stage. However, after each relocation of the administrative boundary, a series of spacious and massive headquarters quickly fell into a state of abandonment, degradation, waste, and the locality was very worried but had to be helpless.
We can mention a series of unused billion-dollar offices in Ca Dy commune, Nam Giang district that cannot be transferred to another unit or liquidated public assets such as: Office of the People's Council - People's Committee of the district (Ba Dau village), guest house of the People's Committee of the district, Department of Education and Training of the district, Department of Civil Judgment Enforcement of the district, People's Procuracy of the district, Department of Transaction of the District Policy Bank, Branch of the District Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Agribank), 2 headquarters of the People's Committee of the old Ca Ong commune in Pa Ong village and Ben Giang village...
"The People's Committee of Nam Giang district has proposed a plan to arrange real estate in the form of "transfer to localities for management and handling" of surplus headquarters under the district's management. At the same time, it also proposed to receive a number of surplus headquarters of central agencies located in Ca Ty commune to develop an exploitation and auction plan.
However, the surplus headquarters in mountainous areas such as Ca Ly commune, Nam Giang district do not have high commercial value, the function of using agency headquarters is not suitable for business needs, no economic organization has a need to buy" - a representative of Nam Giang District People's Committee explained.
When the golden land is forgotten
The office in the mountainous area that is difficult to liquidate has been "forgotten" right with the headquarters of the old Quang Nam Department of Physical Education and Sports, with an area of 1,145m2, located in the "golden land" in the center of Tam Ky city, Quang Nam has also been "forgotten" and abandoned for more than 15 years.
Previously, implementing Decree No. 13/2008/ND-CP of the Government, after the merger to establish the provincial Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism and moving to the new headquarters on Tran Phu Street, the old headquarters of the provincial Department of Physical Education and Sports (at No. 18 Tran Quy Cap, Tan Thanh Ward, Tam Ky City) has been closed and abandoned since then. Due to not being used or preserved, the project quickly deteriorated and fell into disrepair right in the heart of the city.
According to the report of the Department of Finance of Quang Nam province, in this locality, there are 388 houses and land that are not in use, are used ineffectively, and are not used for the right purpose, with a total land area wasted over 82.3 hectares. Of which, mainly houses and land are not in use with 378 facilities (23 provincial-level facilities, 355 district-level facilities, communes).
In addition to the offices and land surplus due to arrangement and merger, in Quang Nam there are currently 59 projects and works invested by the State, completed but used ineffectively, leading to abandonment, causing a waste of hundreds of billions of VND. For example: Infrastructure of Quang Nam's concentrated seafood production area in Binh Nam commune, Thang Binh district has invested more than 39 billion VND (more than 20ha); Dien Nam - Dien Ngoc Industrial Park General Clinic under Quang Nam Regional General Hospital has invested more than 43 billion VND (nearly 4,500m2)...
Responding to Lao Dong reporter, Mr. Le Van Dung - Chairman of Quang Nam Provincial People's Committee said that he was very saddened that a series of offices and land from the provincial to the grassroots level that have been merged for many years have not been handled yet.
"In the near future, the province must recalculate to avoid wasting these prime land locations. If we cannot solve the problem of abandonment and waste of offices, we will try not to waste land resources" - Mr. Le Van Dung said.
"Most of the offices are built in prime locations, next to large roads with a large scale, spacious, convenient for people to contact and resolve administrative procedures. When merging and arranging, waste is eliminated and degraded, regardless of the reason, it is a regrettable waste..." - Mr. Ho Xuan Quang, AhlLVTND in Tam Ky shared.
