YÊN BÁI — The Government Inspectorate has sent a team to Yên Bái Province on Tuesday to examine suspected land mismanagement and misuse by the director of the province’s Department of Environment and Natural Resources, Phạm Sỹ Quý.

Head of Government Inspectorate’s Anti-corruption Bureau Phạm Trọng Đạt said Yên Bái Province’s Inspectorate on June 8 issued a decision to inspect construction, land management and land use of the household in Minh Tân Commune, Yên Bái City, with the head of the household identified as Hoàng Thị Huệ - Quý’s wife.

The move was made after local media reported about how houses were allegedly constructed for Quý’s family in a short time on 13,000sq.m. of forest land.

Government Inspectorate official Đạt said the provincial People’s Committee later asked for an examination to be carried out by the Government Inspectorate instead of a local agency to ensure objectivity and avoid unexpected interference, as Phạm Sỹ Quý is the brother of the province’s Party Committee secretary Phạm Thị Thanh Trà.

Đạt said the inspection would focus on asset declaration and land use in connection with the land on which Quý’s premises were built.

The premises include a hillside villa, stilt houses, a pond and a garden covering more than 1.3 hectares of land. The land is believed to have already been designated as forest and agriculture land, which means residential use is restricted.

Quý said, as cited in the Lao Động (Labour) newspaper, that the area was repurposed in 2015 and that he did not break any rule.

Quý is among the officials named in a nepotism inspection report by the Ministry of Home Affairs in February.

He was promoted to his current post last year by his sister.

The ministry concluded that the appointment did not follow regulations. — VNS