The Party Central Committee’s Inspection Commission has asked the Politburo, the country's highest decision-making body, take disciplinary action against Le Thanh Hai, former secretary of the Ho Chi Minh City’s Party Committee, for his wrongdoing at the Thu Thiem New Urban Area development which has left decade-long civil litigation.
| Le Thanh Hai, former secretary of the Ho Chi Minh City’s Party Committee. Photo: VnExpress |
The commission’s investigations have shown violations of the Party regulations by the standing board of the HCM City Party Committee in the 2010-2015 tenure in which Hai was the leader responsible for the whole case, the commission said in an announcement Wednesday.
The Party Directive Committee of the HCM City government in the 2011-2016 tenure was also involved when dealing with the project.
Hai and other top leaders of the municipal government had infringed the Party's regulations on democratic centralism and shown lack of responsibility, slack leadership, and poor inspections in the development of the Thu Thiem New Urban Area, according to the inspection commission.
The infringements resulted in heavy losses for the State and negatively affected the country’s socioeconomic development and the livelihood of hundreds of HCM City residents, tarnishing the prestige of the municipal authorities and sparking public concerns.
According to the Central Inspection Commission, Hai must bear the prime responsibility for the violations and shortcomings of the standing board of the municipal Party Committee.
| Leadership's violations have been leaving hundreds of locals homeless and impoverished, causing decade-long civil ligitation. Photo: Laodong |
Meanwhile, Le Hoang Quan, former deputy secretary of the HCM City Party Committee and former chairman of the municipal government, must share responsibility for the violations of the standing board of the municipal Party Committee and bear the main liability for mistakes made by the HCM City government, the Saigon Times reported.
In addition, former deputy secretary of the HCM City Party Committee and former vice chairman of the municipal government Nguyen Van Dua as well as other municipal vice chairpersons Nguyen Thi Hong, Le Van Khoa, and Vu Hung Viet, must shoulder responsibility for violations and their failure to fulfill their duties.
Included in the master plan dozens of years ago, the Thu Thiem New Urban Area project was designed to cover 930 hectares, including 770 hectares for the new urban area and 160 hectares for resettlement, with a population of 200,000.
More than 99% of the site for the project has been cleared, but over 100 households continue to complain about the loss of their land.
In September 2018, the Government Inspectorate pointed out serious violations and shortcomings of the HCM City government and the relevant ministries and agencies in the execution of the project, such as taking back 4.3 hectares of land outside the approved boundary of the project and handing over land lots within the resettlement area to 51 enterprises.
In September last year, the inspectorate continued identifying other violations of the municipal government and agencies, such as illegally providing in advance a large amount of capital for the project contractor and approving the investments for build-transfer infrastructure projects there. Those violations caused losses of more than US$1 billion to State coffers.
