HCMC – The Government Inspectorate has pointed out many violations of the provincial government of Khanh Hoa in handing over land lots around the Nha Trang airport area to the Phuc Son Group and other investors to implement six build-transfer (BT) projects in this south-central province.
Among the six BT projects, three projects developed by the Phuc Son Group comprise a project to build roads leading to the Nha Trang airport area, the Ngoc Hoi intersection project and a ring road project connecting with the Ngoc Hoi intersection project, Phap Luat newspaper reported.
The fourth one is the Road No.4 project invested by the VCN Investment Company. The fifth is the Nguyen Thien Thuat extended road project whose investor is Hacom Holdings Company. The sixth is a project to collect and treat wastewater invested by a joint venture of INCOTEC Investment and Environment Technology JSC and Ngoc Minh UDIC Construction and Trading JSC.
According to the inspection results released on June 30, three BT projects that the province assigned the Phuc Son Group to develop showed many violations.
Specifically, the approval for the projects, the feasibility study, the total investment and the signing of BT contracts were not on par with the provincial government’s document which had been reported to and previously approved by the prime minister. As a result, the total investment was increased by VND484 billion, the duration to implement the projects was extended by 30 more months and a Group A project was divided into two Group B projects.
Besides this, some works were added to the projects inadequately, leading to the total investment rising by VND499 billion.
Further, the payback plan mentioned in the BT contracts did not match the provincial government’s proposal that had been passed by the prime minister. In addition, approving investor selection results and negotiating and signing contracts for these three BT projects with a value higher than that of the BT projects approved by the province by VND73 billion went against the prevailing regulations, the inspectors said.
The remaining three projects developed by other investors also have many shortcomings and violations. Specifically, the province approved the projects’ investment, feasibility study and signed the BT contracts, even though the land fund for payment was not available.
The inspectors said that the use of the land fund at the Nha Trang airport area as a payment method for the BT projects is in line with a plan approved by the prime minister. However, the provincial government received the land fund from the Ministry of National Defense and handed it over to the Phuc Son Group when a decision to withdraw, hand over and lease the land was not taken, thus violating Article 53 of the 2013 Land Law.
It is illegal as the provincial government did not have the provincial Department of Natural Resources and Environment’s documents to appraise the demand to use the land fund and conditions to hand over the land fund.
The inspectors pointed out that it is also illegal when the provincial government approved and granted the investment certificate to the projects’ investor without organizing a bidding round to select appropriate investors.
