Hanoi Police Department provides information.

On the afternoon of December 27th, on the sidelines of a press conference announcing the situation and results of police work in 2023, Major General Nguyen Thanh Tung (Deputy Director of Hanoi City Police) provided information about irregularities in the auction results of three sand mines in Ba Vi district and Bac Tu Liem district.

According to Hanoi Police, on November 5th, the Hanoi Land Development Center held an auction for the right to exploit mineral resources for three sand mines: Chau Son mine (in Chau Son commune, Ba Vi district, with reserves of over 700,000 m3), Lien Mac mine (Lien Mac ward, Bac Tu Liem district, with reserves of over 500,000 m3), and Tay Dang - Minh Chau mine (in Tay Dang town, Minh Chau commune and Chu Minh commune, Ba Vi district, with reserves of nearly 5 million m3).

Forty-one businesses applied to participate in the auction for the sand mines. After receiving the information, the Hanoi City Police monitored the situation, collected relevant documents about the auction, and directly tracked and supervised the activities during the auction.

The verification results show that the auction was conducted objectively; no signs of violations of auction laws were detected; and no instances of collusion or price manipulation were found.

After reviewing the auction records and documents, Hanoi police determined that 41 sets of documents from 41 participating businesses met the criteria set by the Department of Natural Resources and Environment.

Earlier in November, the Land Development Center (Hanoi Department of Natural Resources and Environment) announced that it had completed the auction of the right to exploit three sand mines in the area. The total amount paid by organizations and individuals in the auctions was nearly 1,700 billion VND.

Specifically, the Chau Son sand mine (Chau Son commune, Ba Vi district) has a licensed sand reserve of over 703,500 m3. The starting price is set at over 2.8 billion VND.

After 89 rounds of bidding, the organizers determined the winning bid to be nearly 397 billion VND, more than 137 times the starting price. The second mine in Lien Mac (Thuong Cat and Lien Mac wards, Bac Tu Liem district) has a sand reserve of 508,603 m3. The starting price was over 2 billion VND. After 53 rounds, the winning bid was over 408 billion VND, nearly 200 times the starting price.

With the Tay Dang - Minh Chau mine (Minh Chau and Chu Minh communes, Ba Vi district) having an exploitable sand reserve of 4,899,000 m3, the starting price was over 19 billion VND, and the winning bid was nearly 884 billion VND, almost 46 times the starting price.

Following media reports on the unusually high auction results for three sand mines, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh sent a telegram to Hanoi and relevant ministries and agencies, stating that this was a matter of particular public concern, potentially impacting socio -economic development and the construction materials market, and requesting a review.

Minh Tue

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