QUẢNG NAM — The provincial Party’s Inspection Committee has punished several officials after illegal logging operations were discovered in La Dêê Commune in Nam Giang District.

The committee said in a statement last week that seven officials and three teams were accused of poor management and inspections of forests, and some of them intentionally received and stored illegally-sourced wood from loggers.

The committee said two border guard officers from a check-point in Nam Giang district station, Senior Lieutenant Colonel Nguyễn Tấn Lạc and Lieutenant Dương Văn Hoàng, were issued with a warning for their violation of forest management and protection.

Two others, Major Đỗ Hoàng Minh and Senior Lieutenant Nguyễn Thế Nhân, received reprimand.

The punishment decision was meted out to the members of Nam Giang district border gate customs when they stored 7.7 cubic metres of Pơ Mu timber (Fokienia hodginsii) – a Threatened Species on the International Union of Conservation of Nature (IUCN)’s Red List in 2006 – at the station’s warehouse.

Lê Trung Thịnh, head of the border gate customs station also received a warning for receiving 1.1 cubic metres of wood.

Punishments were also given to the management board of South Bung River’s forest and its director – Đỗ Tuấn and deputy director Hồ Thanh Hiệp – for poor management of forest protection.

The case was one of the worst forest loggings in the province that involved various military officers and customs in the border area.

In August, the provincial investigation agencies arrested five loggers for illegal logging in sub-zone 351in La Dêê Commune of Nam Giang District.

An on-site examination found 60 Pơ Mu trees, a total 115.4 cubic metres, had been chopped down, of which 41 trees were sawn into round panels.

Earlier, investigation agencies seized 47 cubic metres of logs in a store in Nam Giang District in July. The deforestation occurred in an area bordering Laos’s Sekong Province. Customs and border guard staff were also involved in the violations. 

The Vietnamese Communist Party has four modes of punishment for misconduct by official members: reprimand, warning, demotion and dismissal. — VNS