KIÊN GIANG — Authorities in Kiên Giang Province have been tasked to coordinate with the provincial Department of Natural Resources and Environment to retrieve 1,029 original land use rights certificates reportedly missing on Phú Quốc Island District, a senior police official said.

The police has sent a notice to banks in the province about the missing documents, commonly known as "red books".

According to Colonel Lưu Thành Tín, deputy director of the Kiên Giang Police Department, the move was taken in response to the risk that some people could take advantage of the red books to falsify papers and mortgages.

The certificates had allegedly been missing since 2014. 

The incident was detected in March last year as the police investigated a criminal case involving embezzlement and lack of responsibility, causing serious consequences, at the land registration office in Phú Quốc District. 

According to investigators, Phạm Thi Ngọc Ánh was assigned as the accountant and treasurer managing the fees collected from Phú Quốc’s Land Registration Office from 2013 to June 2016.

In order to scam the money for personal expenses, Ánh modified 128 receipts to illegally appropriate nearly VNĐ2.5 billion (US$108,500) from the office.

Trần Văn Hoàng, former director, and Trần Văn Kiên, former deputy director, are accused of not performing their duties or supervising the fee declarations and receipts, creating loopholes for Ánh to take large sums of money.

At the first trial which was held on April 11 this year, Ánh was sentenced to 15 years in prison for “property embezzlement” by Kiên Giang Province People’s Court,  while Hoàng and Kiên were imprisoned for one year for “negligent responsibility, causing severe consequences”. — VNS