Sơn La officials cause VNĐ1.2b loss to State

October 31, 2018 - 18:00

Three former department officials in Sơn La Province have been accused of wrongly overcompensating a resident during land clearance for a hydropower plant, causing losses of more than VNĐ1.2 billion (US$53,300) to the State.

A police officer reads out the arrest warrant for Trương Tuấn Dũng, deputy director of the Sơn La Department of Finance. — Photo tuoitre.vn
Viet Nam News

SƠN LA — Three former department officials in Sơn La Province have been accused of wrongly overcompensating a resident during land clearance for a hydropower plant, causing losses of more than VNĐ1.2 billion (US$53,300) to the State.

The Sơn La People’s Procuracy on Monday released its complete indictment against 14 people, including the provincial Department of Natural Resources and Environment director Triệu Ngọc Hoan, his deputy director Phan Tiến Diện and the Department of Finance deputy director Trương Tuấn Dũng. They were prosecuted under accusations of deliberate breaches and irresponsibility causing serious consequences.

According to the indictment, the Sơn La People’s Committee in 2003 decided to reclaim more than 2,000ha of land in Mường La District and Liệp Tè Commune from residents to prepare for the construction of the colossal Sơn La hydropower plant project.

Ten years later, many residents who lost their land due to the project complained that they have yet to receive the compensation money.

The municipal People’s Committee ordered the Mường La authorities to re-measure the land and determine the proper compensation amount for any land lots missed in the past.

One of the defendants, Dũng, then vice chairman of the Mường La People’s Committee, was directly in charge of the mission.

He was found to have signed documents allowing the measurement work and the cadastral mapping without following the guidelines of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment.

Resident Đèo Văn Ban was accused of scheming with land measuring officers to increase the measurement of his land plot in order to receive a larger compensation sum of more than VNĐ1.2 billion.

The natural resources department director Hoan, without confirming the accuracy of the cadastral maps, still signed off on them, which led to Ban’s overcompensation.

Diện, then vice chairman of the Mường La People’s Committee, allegedly knew about the wrongdoings of Dũng but failed to report them to a higher level while still approving the compensation proposal. — VNS

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