Ha Noi meets land auction goals

Land sits idle for years in the capital city's Tu Liem District, but the city is on track to fulfilling its tartget for income this year from auctions of land use rights. — VNA/VNS Photo Hoang Lam

HA NOI — Ha Noi was well on track to fulfilling its target of land use right auction income for 2010 although some problems still remained unresolved, said a high-ranking city official.

Nguyen Trong Dong, Deputy Director of Ha Noi's Department of Natural Resources and Environment said so far, 18 units had conducted auctions for 11.7ha of land, raking in VND2.5 trillion (US$125 million), accounting for 97 per cent of the city's planned budget income.

In December, the city will conduct more auctions in an attempt to earn VND80 billion ($4 million) more to fulfil the plan for the year. Land in Thon Bon Village, Ngo Thi Nham area, Dong Dung area in Ha Dong District and Trau Quy commune in Gia Lam district will be up for auction and is expected to bring in VND370 billion ($18.5 million) for the city.

Dong said, however, there were still many problems which needed to be addressed.

Among them were the slow pace of land clearance and infrastructure construction, and the lengthy task of preparing necessary documents.

In a recent meeting between city leaders and district officials on this issue, many officials at district level said they were unsure about how to implement Decree 17/2010/ND-CP on land auctions as the Government had not issued guidelines.

Under the decree, local authorities need to invite auctioneers from the city to attend the auctions in a supervisory role. But many district officials said this was both unnecessary and ineffective.

Tran Duc Nguyen, deputy chairman of Thach That District People's Committee said his district were unable to hold auctions due to this stipulation.

The district officials also pointed to bid rigging as a major problem.

Many land rights owners deliberately made high bids for adjoining land to increase the value of their own, but then refused to pay after the auction finished, said local officials.

An official of Quoc Oai District suggested that the city should raise the deposit for land auctions in order to tackle this problem.

Vu Hong Khanh, deputy chairman of the city People's Committee said city authorities would hold discussions with other related ministries to work out feasible solutions to the remaining problems.

Khanh said that auction winners who failed to pay would have their land use rights revoked within 30 days.

He added auction boards and relevant authorities should closely co-operate to organise sales and strictly punish any violations. — VNS

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Land use rights procedures cause concern

More than 44.6 percent of online survey opinions said that administrative procedures relating to land use rights certificates was the most annoying issue, announced the UNDP and e-newspaper VietNamNet at a press briefing in Hanoi on Oct. 19.

The figure is the result of the first-ever online public poll, jointly launched by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and VietNamNet at http:// www.hienkecchc.vn, on Vietnamese citizens’ views of and experiences with public administrative procedures.

The survey which has been active for three months drew the participation of 1,500 people and half of the answers came from Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, the northern port city of Hai Phong and the Mekong delta city of Can Tho.

As part of the survey, people we re encouraged to provide their own recommendations on how to simplify different administrative procedures and/or improve public administrative services.

Other troublesome administrative procedures include building permits procedures (8.79 percent), petitions (7.29 percent) and social insurance (6.34 percent).

Procedures relating to marriage, birth and identity card certificates are the easiest ones, said the survey.

Up to 67 percent of surveyed people said that administrative procedures required too much paperwork while 73 percent said that they should ask for help from friends or relatives in order to complete this paperwork and 50 percent complained public employees were not familiar with their work.

According to UNDP policy advisor on anti-corruption and public administration reform Jairo Acuna-Alfaro , who is also part of the team that designed the survey , seven out of ten surveyed people said an extra amount of money was needed to get the work done faster.

The data analysis showed that further reforms needed to be done in delivering the results to citizens as scheduled, improving public employees’ professional behaviour and providing clear information on what procedures were needed.

According to the result, people expected services to be more transparent, convenient and simpler and wider application of information technology in the services.

They also expected more involvement in detecting and denouncing violations in the services, said the result./.

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HCM City set to streamline home ownership titles

Apartment buildings in HCM City. Excessively complicated procedures are being blamed for the slow granting of land-use rights and house ownership certificates. — VNA/VNS Photo Van Khanh

HCM CITY — New procedures on granting a single document covering both land-use rights as well as house ownership are proving difficult to implement, according to a report prepared by HCM City's National Assembly deputies.

The report, released early this month, says HCM City will adjust its procedures for granting land use rights certificates as well as titles to houses and other land-related assets to reduce difficulties for city residents and speed up the process.

Towards this, the municipal People's Committee has asked relevant branches, industries and agencies to review current regulations and submit amendment proposals before September 15.

According to the report, the Government's policy to issue one certificate that covers both land use rights and ownership of houses has been heartily welcomed by local residents.

However, the city's implementation of the policy was facing many obstacles, mainly arising from complicated procedures and requirements that considerably slowed down the process to grant certificates.

The report says that the city has to date granted over 1 million certificates since the government's one certificate policy took effect in December 10 last year.

However it would be difficult for it to meet the year-end target set by the National Assembly, for which more than 370,000 certificates would have to be granted in less than four months, it adds.

Under current regulations of the municipal People's Committee, housing projects that do not have infrastructure system acceptance certificates would not be granted ownership documents.

This stipulation has made it impossible for many households in the city to obtain legal title to their assets including land and land-related assets.

However, this rule was not included in the central Government's current policy on granting ownership certificates, the report notes.

The National Assembly delegates also mention in the report that the current process of applying for house ownership and residential land use right certificate was convoluted and time-consuming.

According to current regulations, an applicant for a house ownership and residential land use right certificate should submit a valid dossier to the provincial, or municipal-level Natural Resources and Environment Department. The latter will scan the application and forward the dossier to the district level People's Committee where the house is located.

After receiving the dossier, the district-level People's Committee fills in the house ownership and residential land use right certificate under the housing law, checks it for conformity with relevant laws, and returns it to the provincial, or municipal-level natural resources department to be handed over to the house owner.

The old process was much more simple since the applicant only had to submit a valid dossier to the district-level People's Committee, and would also receive the certificate from the district administration itself, the report said.

Another regulation that requires a new ownership certificate whenever there is a change in house ownership is also costing residents considerable time and effort that was not necessary, the report remarks.

Earlier, the new owner's name was added to the existing title certificate, for which space was provided in the document. It was only when there was no further space (after about seven title transfers) that a new certificate was issued.

The National Assembly deputies have called for changes in unnecessary and cumbersome procedures so that the process of granting and transferring title documents is made easy for both residents and officials. — VNS

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