BẮC GIANG — Stone tiles used to pave walls of two office buildings for State agencies in Bắc Giang Province are reportedly falling, threatening the safety of visitors and those working in the buildings.

The nine-storey buildings in Bắc Giang City are the workplace of up to 26 State agencies and provincial organisations. They were built from 2010 to 2014 with total investment of VNĐ345 billion (US$15.2 million) from the State budget and have been in use since November 2014.

However, in the last few months, the quality of the construction has begun quickly deteriorating as wall tiles from the higher storeys have started to fall.

Director of the province’s Department of Construction Phạm Giang said Bắc Giang Province Construction Investment Project Management Board was the investor of the building project while Lam Sơn Construction and Trade Joint Stock Company was the constructor.

The involved parties were informed about the incident and they have promised to fix it soon, Giang said.

Thousands of people reportedly visit the office buildings for business, including public administrative services.

Warnings about the danger of falling tiles are placed on walls.

Previously, in 2015, violations relating to the construction of the buildings were detected. One violation was that the investor and relevant parties failed to produce the proper feasibility study and investment plan, which resulted in higher real investment exceeding the estimated figure by some VNĐ18.4 billion.

More than half of the difference was due to volume of construction materials and costs of materials being calculated wrongly.

It was found that project constractor Lam Sơn Construction and Trade Joint Stock Company had not submitted all the legal documents proving the origin of materials. — VNS