Land case corruption remains a thorny issue

Private sector firms are looking for an even property playing field

In an anti-corruption dialogue held last week in Hanoi, coorganised by the Government Inspectorate, the Central Steering Committee on Anti-Corruption’s Office and the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, in coordination with the Embassy of Sweden, the National Assembly’s Legislative Affairs Committee standing member Nguyen Dinh Quyen said corruption relating to land management was getting sophisticated.

“A National Assembly survey found that the majority of people said they were familiar and ready to give bribes when dealing with authorities. Also, authorities said they were familiar with receiving bribes from people,” Quyen said.

According to the Government Inspectorate General Tran Van Truyen, a range of violations are causing great losses to national assets and alarming citizens.

Dang Hung Vo, former National Resources and Environment (MoNRE) Deputy Minister, said most corruption cases were linked to the issuance of land use right certificates, procedures on repossessing land, land clearance and compensation activities.

According to a survey recently conducted by the Sweden and Danish embassies and the World Bank, land management and use corruption in Vietnam was worsening, as 85 per cent of the surveyed households said there was corruption in this field and 30 per cent of the targeted businesses said they had to give bribes to get land use certificates.

The survey, which was carried out in Lang Son, Bac Ninh, Binh Dinh, Ho Chi Minh City and Tien Giang shows that corruption mainly occurs in exclusive agencies, bodies with low accountability and decision makers.

“We know that as many as 33 per cent of enterprises indicated that a gift or informal payment was expected when applying for land use right certificate,” said Swedish ambassador to Vietnam Staffan Herrstrom.

Herrstrom added that the law enforcement and oversight system was still weak and it was difficult to claim accountability and the poorest in society were hit the hardest.

“The procedures for land registration are cumbersome and only 1 per cent of people lodging complaints were satisfied. This creates an environment for corruption to develop,” Herrstrom noted.

He said preferential access to land for state-owned enterprises distorted the market and inhibited the growth of dynamic private sector companies that have no land to use as loan collateral.

Ayumi Konishi, director of Asian Development Bank, said that one of the reasons for increased corruption in Vietnam was low state salary levels.

“This has serious impacts on the government because a low salary motivates staff to participate in bureaucracy activities to have more income,” Konishi said.

According to the Government Inspectorate, in recent years more than 100,000 cases of complaint, conflicts and wrong doings in land were sent to government bodies. The inspectorate received 5,000 to 7,000 complaints every year.

Meanwhile, the MoNRE said from 2004 more than 7,000 hectares of land were repossessed for violating laws on land management and another 15,000ha were reclaimed for users’ violations, mostly in Quang Ninh, Haiphong, Dak Nong, Ho Chi Minh City and Binh Phuoc.