Vietnam Land Administration Project: Poor Performance

A recent released report by Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MONRE), bidding activities has been conducted in 9 project provinces and cities. There are 30 contractors participating in the projects (including independent ones and associating ones). Total project fund disbursed is US$24.213 million (equal to 24.2 percent), in which IDA fund accounted for US$17.616 million (equal to 23.5 percent of IDA fund) and counterpart fund accounted for US$ 6.6 million (equal to 26.4 percent of counterpart fund).

 

Deputy Minister Nguyen Manh Hien, MONRE - VLAP Manager said that among 30 contractors, there were 5 state enterprises eligible to participate in bidding, 2 contractors being non-productive units from Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, 1 contractor being a center from a state university ineligible to participate in bidding, and private enterprises (limited and joint stock ones), and one associated French contractor. Also according to Mr Hien, at present, there are only about 5-6 contractors eligible to participate in bidding that can take charge of contracts with value over VND10 billion.

 

Given that fact, Ms Jennife Sara - Manager of Sustainable Development Division of World Bank (WB) in Vietnam stated that despite the large number of contractors, their capacity was still limited. Meanwhile, provinces were slow in approving documents related to bidding procedures. For example, it took provinces and cities such as Hanoi, Binh Dinh, Quang Ngai, Thai Binh about 50-60 days to approve bidding plan (from Department of Natural Resources and Environment submission to Project Executing Agency).

 

Bidding document assessment activity has no changes in principle but in form since application of bidding packages. It was evaluated by Project Management Unit (PMU) that in initial period, some provinces took long time to assess bidding documents such as Ben Tre, Quang Ngai, Binh Dinh, said Ms Jennife Sara.

 

Mr Le Van Lich, Deputy Director of General Department of Land Administration said that lack of contractors eligible to bid was an obstacle in bidding document assessment. The reason was for the past time, all activities related to technical services such as project scale, there hasn’t ever held bidding in large scope, key contractors from MONRE were not eligible to bid whereas eligible ones did not meet requirements of finance and experience. Therefore, according to Mr Lich, we should review to see the actual role of contractors.

 

To improve project efficiency, in coming time, Deputy Minister Nguyen Manh Hien stated that: Ministry was determined to cut out contracts of contractors with inadequate financial capacity or delayed progress against committed schedule in 3 or more bidding packages and find new suitable ones. Thus, VLAP Project will be restructured in the direction of allocating the rest fund to provide comprehensive equipment and transfer technology for provinces completing database or pilot model in a specific province and district.

 

To beat that goal, Deputy Minister Hien should review contents, equipment and human resources for modern land administration model to build one database connecting from the central to provincial, district, commune and ward levels. Those with good implementation will be given more funds while those with delayed progress and poor quality will have fund cut down. Completed works have to be put into operation to test reality and assess results, security ability as well as quality and draw experience for nationwide implementation.

 

In 2012, General Department of Land Administration will make effort to finish restructuring projects and registered service packages and manage to build sample models in provinces. Representative from Dai Thanh Geodetic Joint Stock Company said that, it was residents that help successfully build sample model in province, thus, authorities should provide them with chances to participate in meetings, give their comments in land measurement and registration etc. Therefore, he said that it was community activities that strengthen people’s trust. Especially, concerning land, information should be made available to ease people’s worries about land acquisition.

It is known that in coming time, the project will actively adopt measures to disseminate information about land registration and services through documents in simple language or large poster. Procedure of Land Registration will be publicized in Land Registration Offices and disclosed in detail to local agencies. It is hoped that with such actions, really qualified contractors will be selected to help land administration to be more equal and transparent.