Binh Dinh: Particularly 'poor' commune spends half a billion to build a statue of 'empty hands', review

The symbolic two-arm structure in a particularly difficult highland commune in Canh Lien (Van Canh district, Binh Dinh province) was built at a cost of nearly half a billion VND from the state budget.

Mr. Luong Dinh Tien - Chairman of Van Canh District People's Committee informed Nguoi Lao Dong newspaper that there has just been a decision to handle the inspection results related to the project to renovate a typical tourist destination in Canh Lien commune (abbreviated as the 2-arm project).

Accordingly, the Chairman of the People's Committee of Van Canh district requested the Chairman of the People's Committee of Canh Lien commune to be responsible for recovering the amount of nearly 18 million VND in violations before September 30 and to organize a review of the collective and individual responsibilities for the shortcomings as stated in the inspection results. In addition, if authorized by competent authorities, the two-arm structure will continue to exist.

Request the Head of the Finance and Planning Department to learn from experience in advising the District People's Committee on capital allocation; strictly control capital sources and expenditure tasks for each budget level before advising the District People's Committee on allocation, ensuring that the allocated budget is appropriate to the objects of budget management and use.

Previously, according to Dan Tri, the Inspectorate of Van Canh district (Binh Dinh) announced the conclusion of a surprise inspection on the investment in funding and construction process of the project to beautify a typical tourist destination in Canh Lien commune.

Through inspection, the budget to support the renovation of typical tourist destinations in Canh Lien commune allocated by Van Canh district People's Committee to the commune is the budget for regular expenditures, expenditures for urban construction, renovation, urban development, promotion, and cultural and tourism development.

Accordingly, the typical tourist project in Canh Lien commune (abbreviated as the hand project), newly built, has a construction budget of 480 million VND.

However, according to the regulations on decentralization of revenue sources, the state budget expenditure tasks among local government levels of Binh Dinh province in the period of 2022-2025 do not stipulate the expenditure tasks of commune, ward and town budgets to carry out the cause of urban construction, urban development and beautification, promotion and development of culture and tourism.

Van Canh District Inspectorate found that most of the hand-built construction items are located within the traffic safety corridor of Canh Thuan - Canh Lien route according to the approved scale of Van Canh District construction planning project; some items are lacking in volume but have been paid for with an amount of nearly 18 million VND.

The Economic - Infrastructure Department of Van Canh district also said that the Canh Thuan - Canh Lien route is managed by the district, but during the construction process, the People's Committee of Canh Lien commune did not report to ask for opinions from the district leaders.

According to regulations, if the Hand project violates the traffic safety corridor, it must be dismantled and restored to its original state.

According to the Inspectorate of Van Canh district, the District Finance and Planning Department advised the District People's Committee to allocate support funds to communes for urban development, promotion, and cultural and tourism development, which is not suitable for the management and use of the budget. The People's Committee of Canh Lien commune did not use the allocated funds for the right purposes.

The main responsibility for the above shortcomings lies with the investor, the People's Committee of Canh Lien commune, headed by the commune chairman and the commune's professional departments.

The Inspectorate of Van Canh District recommends that the Chairman of the District People's Committee direct the Chairman of the People's Committee of Canh Lien Commune and relevant parties to seriously review and learn from experience. At the same time, the Inspectorate of the District recommends that the Chairman of the People's Committee of Van Canh District recommend to the Standing Committee of the District Party Committee to allow the hand-shaped structure to continue to exist in its current location, because at present this structure does not obstruct the view of traffic participants and does not hinder traffic.