Addressing the backlog in issuing land use right certificates to regain public trust.

Faced with the backlog of land use right certificates (LURCs) causing public dissatisfaction, on May 30, 2022, the Standing Committee of the Provincial People's Council held a hearing on the situation of issuing LURCs, ownership rights of houses and assets attached to land in the province. After pointing out the shortcomings and weaknesses, the Standing Committee of the Provincial People's Council issued Conclusion No. 251/KL-HĐND dated June 2, 2022, requesting the Provincial People's Committee, departments, agencies, the People's Committees of districts, towns, and cities, and relevant units to urgently rectify the situation to regain the trust of the people.

Comrade Dinh Ngoc Thuy, Deputy Head of the Economic and Budget Committee of the Provincial People's Council, presented the report at the session .

A coordinated and responsible approach.

According to the monitoring report presented by Deputy Head of the Economic and Budget Committee of the Provincial People's Council, Dinh Ngoc Thuy, at the 24th session of the 18th Provincial People's Council, the implementation of Conclusion No. 251/KL-HĐND of the Standing Committee of the Provincial People's Council on the situation of granting land use right certificates, ownership of houses and assets attached to land in the province has always received the attention, coordinated efforts and responsibility of all levels and sectors.

To ensure that Conclusion No. 251/KL-HĐND yields the best results, the Provincial People's Committee has issued a plan and assigned specific tasks to departments, agencies, and district-level People's Committees, following the principle of "clear responsibilities, clear tasks, clear accountability, and clear timelines for resolution".

The Economic and Budget Committee of the Provincial People's Council supervises the implementation of Conclusion No. 251/KL-HĐND at the Department of Natural Resources and Environment (Photo by Quoc Huong).

In addition to advising the Provincial People's Committee on resolving many difficult and complex cases in Thieu Giang commune (Thieu Hoa district), Hoat Giang commune (Ha Trung district), Yen Bai village, Te Loi commune (Nong Cong district)..., the leaders of the Department of Natural Resources and Environment (TN&MT) and the Thanh Hoa Land Registration Office have worked directly with the People's Committees of 16 districts, towns, and cities on the review, statistics, and classification of land registration records in the localities; and regularly guided, urged, and inspected the implementation by the People's Committees of districts, towns, and cities and the branches of the Land Registration Office.

All 27 districts, towns, and cities have established Steering Committees or Working Groups to direct the issuance of land use right certificates; and have developed plans to resolve the backlog of applications. Regular quarterly and semi-annual meetings are held with land administration officials at the commune level to address difficulties and obstacles in the process of issuing initial land use right certificates to households and individuals.

A step forward in resolving the backlog of cases.

Through review, statistics, and classification, the backlog of applications for registration of changes, issuance, and re-issuance of land use right certificates under the jurisdiction of the Thanh Hoa Land Registration Office is 11,159. For the district level, the figures are 67,773 cases in 2022; 75,068 cases in 2023; and 55,623 cases in 2024.

The Economic and Budget Committee of the Provincial People's Council supervises the implementation of Conclusion No. 251/KL-HĐND in Yen Dinh district (Photo by Quoc Huong).

To address this large backlog of cases, the Department of Natural Resources and Environment has issued numerous directives, urging and guiding the Provincial Land Registration Office and district-level People's Committees to develop plans for resolution. To date, 17 districts, towns, and cities have developed plans to resolve the backlog of cases within the required timeframe.

Aiming for transparency and saving time and costs for citizens, administrative procedure reform is being implemented through various forms such as: fully listing the complete set of administrative procedures for registration and certificate issuance; installing surveillance cameras and publicly displaying hotline numbers at the reception and results delivery department; publicly and transparently disclosing the required documents and simplifying the processing procedures; promptly addressing citizens' feedback and inquiries; strengthening inspection, supervision, and strictly handling officials and civil servants who exhibit behavior that causes inconvenience or harassment when handling administrative procedures. Currently, 100% of received and processed applications are tracked on the province's administrative procedure information system. At the Department of Natural Resources and Environment, 5 administrative procedures in the land sector under its jurisdiction have had their processing times reduced by 20-40% compared to regulations.

Receiving and processing administrative procedures related to land at the "one-stop" service center of Nong Cong district.

In previous years, the practice of "greasing the wheels" or "bribing" when handling administrative procedures in the land sector had become commonplace. To strictly address this situation, the Department of Natural Resources and Environment established a team to inspect, monitor, and support the registration and issuance of land use right certificates, house ownership certificates, and other assets attached to land at the Thanh Hoa Land Registration Office, and conducted inspections at 7 district-level branches of the Land Registration Office. The People's Committees of districts, towns, and cities also seriously implemented inspection, monitoring, and handling of citizen complaints. Along with receiving citizens as prescribed, district leaders strengthened direct dialogue with citizens to resolve requests and feedback promptly and effectively.

With coordinated and responsible efforts, from June 1, 2022 to June 30, 2024, the entire province received 488,784 applications for land use certificates for households and individuals. As a result, 435,587 applications were successfully processed (89.1%), of which 4,667 were overdue (accounting for 1.07% of the total number of applications processed). Although the issue of overdue applications has not been completely resolved due to various reasons, the decrease from over 2.4% in the 2019-2021 period to 1.07% in the 2022-2024 period demonstrates the continuous efforts of the Land Registration Office from the provincial to the grassroots level, as well as the People's Committees at all levels. This shows that the trust of the people is gradually being built.

Further enhance accountability in the performance of official duties.

While encouraging the impressive figures regarding the changes, it must be frankly acknowledged that the issuance of land use right certificates still faces many difficulties and obstacles due to contradictions, overlaps, inconsistencies, and a lack of synchronization between land law and other related laws, such as the Investment Law, the Enterprise Law, the Bidding Law, the Construction Law, and the Housing Law. The review and classification of backlogs for land use right certificate issuance are still manual, and information is not promptly gathered and updated, leading to frequently changing data. The cadastral database is incomplete and not synchronized; cadastral map records are incomplete and inaccurate. Land management in the past has not been rigorous; the management and storage of cadastral records and certificate issuance records have not received sufficient attention, resulting in many records being damaged or lost.

Processing of applications for organizations and individuals at the Thanh Hoa Provincial Land Registration Office.

In addition to the objective reasons mentioned above, subjective reasons must also be emphasized: The leadership, direction, and implementation by specialized agencies such as the Department of Natural Resources and Environment; the Land Registration Office; and the People's Committees at the district and commune levels have not been truly decisive. The leadership, direction, management, and operation of the district and commune governments have sometimes been lax. Some district-level People's Committees have been slow in developing plans to address outstanding issues, or have developed plans not based on the results of the review, statistics, and classification; the plans are often superficial, lack a clear roadmap, do not assign specific tasks, and are not feasible. The review, statistics, and classification of specific data down to each land parcel are slow and inaccurate.

The process of issuing initial land use certificates for outstanding cases remains very slow, failing to meet requirements, with many aspects achieving very low scores. There are still cases where citizens are required to provide additional documents beyond those stipulated. The resolution of land-related complaints and denunciations under local authority is slow, and there are many instances of citizens submitting complaints to higher levels. Some civil servants and officials exhibit arrogant and harassing attitudes, creating negative public opinion; there are also instances of avoiding and shirking responsibility when handling administrative procedures related to land. The verification of land use certificate applications is flawed, with applications being returned more than once, and processing times being prolonged. In some exceptional cases, certain officials and civil servants have violated the law and faced criminal prosecution.

Delays in issuing land use right certificates are not a new issue, but they remain a "hot" topic, frequently attracting the attention of the public. After two years of implementing Conclusion No. 251/KL-HĐND of the Standing Committee of the Provincial People's Council, a clear shift has been made in resolving outstanding cases. To firmly establish a service-oriented mindset among officials and employees at all levels, in each sector, and among individuals, it is necessary to further enhance the spirit and responsibility in performing official duties to build trust from the people and businesses.

To Phuong

Source: https://baothanhhoa.vn/khac-phuc-ton-dong-trong-cap-giay-chung-nhan-quyen-su-dung-dat-de-lay-lai-niem-tin-cua-nguoi-dan-nbsp-233242.htm