Many believe this is a necessary measure to prevent violations of construction regulations in the city.
Numerous complex violations
Recently, urban construction management in Hanoi has seen many positive changes. With the decisive direction of the city's leaders and the involvement of all levels of government and functional forces in inspection, control, detection, and handling, the number of construction violations has steadily decreased year by year, while prominent violations causing public outrage have also been limited.
According to data reported by the Hanoi Department of Construction, between 17,000 and 20,000 construction projects of all types are licensed annually in the city. In 2016, the percentage of construction violations in the city was 13.9% (2,469/19,138 projects), decreasing to 10.99% in 2017 (1,916/17,422 projects), further to 5.28% in 2018 (891/16,885 projects), 3.07% in 2019 (605/19,697 projects), and 2.13% in 2020 (402/18,878 projects). By the end of 2023, this figure had decreased to approximately 1.67%.
“Under the decisive direction of the city, all levels, sectors, and localities have strongly engaged in the state management of construction activities. Accordingly, many violations of construction regulations have been promptly detected through inspection and supervision, and subsequently, administrative violation files have been established and the original state of the site must be restored. As a result, the number of violations has steadily decreased year by year, the awareness of compliance with construction laws among people and businesses has improved, contributing to enhancing the effectiveness and efficiency of state management and legal discipline,” said Mac Dinh Minh, Deputy Director of the Hanoi Department of Construction.
Urban construction management has gradually become more organized, especially since the Government allowed Hanoi to implement the pilot project for the operation of Urban Construction Management Teams, helping the city build a specialized professional management force and reduce violations of construction regulations.
However, in reality, the "problem" of violations of urban construction regulations continues to occur with many sophisticated tricks employed by offenders; at the same time, some state management officials show signs of laxity, complicity, and deliberately prolonging the processing time to legitimize violations... therefore, the situation of violations of construction regulations in the capital city continues to be complex. Some areas have high rates of violations of construction regulations such as Cau Giay (14.58%), Chuong My (9.09%), Dan Phuong (6.9%), Gia Lam (5.6%), Hoan Kiem (7.4%), Me Linh (42.5%), Soc Son (10.7%), and Thach That (9.8%).
“Currently, in some cases of construction violations in the area, after administrative penalties have been imposed, the perpetrators still try to carry out the violations secretly to evade the authorities. Some previous sanctions that allowed for such actions, such as cutting off electricity and water to violating constructions, have been abolished in legal documents; meanwhile, the inspection force in the area is very small based on the legal quota, so it cannot fully control the increasingly complex situation of violations,” said Nguyen Manh Hung, Vice Chairman of the People's Committee of Trung Hoa Ward (Cau Giay District).
Assign responsibility to the right people for the right tasks.
To improve the effectiveness and efficiency of state management in construction order, in early July 2024, the Chairman of the Hanoi People's Committee issued Document No. 2154/UBND-ĐT requesting the People's Committees of districts, counties, and towns to continue inspecting, reviewing, and handling violations related to construction projects and to be responsible for the results of implementation.
Accordingly, the Hanoi People's Committee requested specialized departments and agencies, as well as the People's Committees of districts, towns, and communes in the area, to promptly detect and decisively handle construction violations within their authority or to promptly recommend that competent authorities handle them, preventing the emergence of new construction violations, especially those violating fire safety laws, or those that have been put into operation without fire safety inspections...
Recently, the Hanoi People's Committee has again proposed including in the draft Resolution of the Hanoi People's Council for public comment a measure requiring the cessation of electricity and water services to violating constructions, based on the 2024 Law on the Capital City. Accordingly, violating constructions include: construction contrary to planning; lack of or incorrect content in permits in cases where permits are required and deviations from approved designs in cases exempted from construction permits; construction not in accordance with design or put into use without fire safety acceptance testing... If approved, these regulations will take effect from January 1, 2025.
“Decree No. 139/2017/ND-CP does not allow the implementation of measures to cut off electricity and water supply to violating constructions. This creates significant difficulties for state management agencies in preventing violations by individuals and organizations, especially in large-scale construction investment projects. Hanoi is one of the areas with the fastest construction growth rate in the country, therefore a special mechanism is needed to serve the management work. I believe that the proposal of the Hanoi People's Committee on the measure of cutting off electricity and water supply to violating constructions is reasonable and appropriate to the actual situation of the city,” - Lawyer Trinh Huu Duc (Vietnam Lawyers Association) observed.
On the other hand, Professor Dang Hung Vo argues that administrative orders are necessary, but more importantly, it is the responsibility of those who enforce them that matters. Besides the limited awareness of construction laws among citizens and businesses, the shirking of responsibility and even complicity in violations by some state officials and civil servants continues to occur, leading to inaccurate reporting of violations; many construction violations are not reported or are reported as not violating regulations. This is making the enforcement of laws and the handling of construction violations, in particular, very difficult.
“To make state management of urban construction order increasingly effective and ensure the supremacy of law, the inspection and identification of violations must be carried out seriously, transparently, and publicly. This will allow us to determine the extent of the violations, the nature of the violations, and who is involved... so that responsibility can be assigned and the right people can be punished. Only in this way can we limit and eventually prevent violations of urban construction order,” Professor Dang Hung Vo expressed his opinion.
To prevent and address violations of construction regulations at their root, in addition to developing and enacting sufficiently strong administrative sanctions, it is necessary to put an end to embezzlement and corruption in planning and construction management. It must be emphasized that citizens and businesses always fear the law; without the "support" of state management agencies, they would not be able to arbitrarily violate it.
Therefore, to uphold the rule of law, the investigating agency must prosecute all these individuals, including those from previous terms. This would both eliminate the mindset of focusing only on one's term and bring planning and construction management activities into order as soon as possible.
Chief of the Office of the Vietnam Association of Architects, Architect Pham Thanh Tung
Source: https://kinhtedothi.vn/vi-pham-trat-tu-xay-dung-can-che-tai-manh-xu-ly-nghiem.html
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