VIE: Secondary Cities Development Project Buon Ma Thuot City … · 2019-10-01 · SECONDARY CITIES...

Social Monitoring Report

Ad-hoc Indpendent Monitoring Report April 2019

VIE: Secondary Cities Development Project Buon Ma Thuot City Subproject

Prepared by Project Management Unit Independent Monitoring Consultant – for the Provincial People’s Committee of Daklak and the Asian Development Bank This social monitoring report is a document of the borrower. The views expressed herein do not necessarily represent those of ADB's Board of Directors, Management, or staff, and may be preliminary in nature.

In preparing any country program or strategy, financing any project, or by making any designation of or reference to a particular territory or geographic area in this document, the Asian Development Bank does not intend to make any judgments as to the legal or other status of any territory or area.

PEOPLE'S COMMITTEE OF BUON MA THUOT PROVINCE BUON MA THUOT CITY PROJECT MANAGEMENT UNIT

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Secondary Cities Development Project Buon Ma Thuot City Subproject

Social Safeguard Independent Monitoring Report

Ad-hoc Monitoring Report, April 2019

Prepared by Individual Consultant:

NGUYEN VAN TRUNG

Resettlement & Social Development Individual Consultant

April 2019

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SECONDARY CITIES DEVELOPMENT PROJECT - BUON MA THUOT CITY

Independent Monitoring Report, April 2019

(1st Draft)

A. Introduction

1. Buon Ma Thuot City Subproject is one of the subprojects of the Secondary Cities Development Project (SCDP). The Subproject consists of four sub-components: (i) BMT-01: Environmental Management - Solid Waste Management and Landfill Site in Hoa Phu Commune, (ii) BMT-02: Urban Road Development (Tran Quy Cap road), and (iii) BM-03: Urban Road Development (Mai Thi Luu road) and (iv) BMT-04: Capacity Building (Subproject Implementation Support). However, among the four components, only components: 1, 2 and 3, involve in land acquisition and resettlement.

2. Mai Thi Luu road and Tran Quy Cap road are the linking routes to the main public services of Buon Ma Thuot City such as the Central Highlands Regional Hospital, the Community Health Care College, and the Complex Sports. Besides, the roads will connect to the new residential areas as provided in the regional development planning and the planning proposals. The roads will become an important part of the City's eastern ring road as proposed in the City's master planning.

3. BMT-03: Development of Mai Thi Luu road. The total length for the construction of the road is 2,575 km. The road starts at Y Wang road and ends at Tran Quy Cap road. About one kilometer (01 km) of the first section of the road runs through upland fields; the next section passes through residential areas and a cemetery; and the final section of about 1.6 km long runs along Mai Thi Luu existing road. The road scale is designed as Bn = 2 x 5.25m wide, and the sidewalk is 2x1.75m wide.

4. In fact, although measures to minimize permanently acquired land impacts were studied taking into the consideration of optimal options for the Project, affection to land, houses and trees... is unavoidable. Therefore, there are totally 262 households affected by the Project, of which 13 households are resettled.

5. Till April 2019, the affected households received compensation and handed over the site to the Project. Currently the Project is under construction and there are no problems relating to the site clearance. However, there are still a number of letters of complaints from residents (05 affected households) about the resettlement land allocation prices in December 2018. Therefore, at the request of the Donor and the PMU, the Independent Monitoring Consultant has been mobilized to carefully review the complaints of the said households. By way of document reviews, field surveys and interviews with the affected households by the Independent Monitoring Consultant in April 2019, the said cases of complaints have been reviewed and concluded as follows.

B. Evaluation of Resettlement Implementation

6. According to the collected information, the detailed measurement survey for the project items was carried out in May 2017. The Center for Land-fund Development of Buon Ma Thuot City is the organization in charge of the site clearance and resettlement of the Project. This organization is governed by the functions in conformity with the Land Law and manages the activities in relation to the compensation, support and resettlement of the Project in Buon Ma Thuot City.

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7. Till April 2019, the compensation and support for the acquired land area and affected assets on the acquired land was completed for 100% pursuantly to the following procedures:

− Land acquisition notices: Pursuant to Document No.283/TB-UBND dated September 12, 2014 by the Chairman of Buon Ma Thuot City People's Committee on the construction of Mai Thi Luu road in Buon Ma Thuot City, which belongs to the Secondary Cities Development Project in Dak Lak province.

− Measurement and inventory: The detailed measurement survey for each household was conducted in May 2017.

− Decisions on compensation plan approval: Pursuant to Decision No.4452/QD-UBND dated July 31, 2017 by Buon Ma Thuot City People’s Committee.

− Compensation payment: By April 2019 the compensation payment for the affected households was complete. All affected households received compensation money.

8. Although handing over land for the project construction, 05 households have made complaints about resettlement land allocation prices. Specifically, the compensation plan for the households affected by the construction of Mai Thi Luu road was calculated in July 2017, while the plan or the prices of resettlement land allocation for them in Residential Area N7.5-N7.24 in Thanh Nhat Ward, Buon Ma Thuat City was calculated in December 2018, which may result in some differences in land prices due to the two different periods of land pricing. The evaluation results of the resettlement implementation in relation to Mai Thi Luu road construction are as follows.

a. Public Information and Community Consultations

9. In general, the project information dissemination and public consultation has been well conducted throughout the project implementation process in the affected Wards. The review of DMS documents shows that the detailed measurement survey in the project affected area was well implemented, namely: (i) The affected households were informed about the time for the DMS for their affected land and assets on land; they participated in the DMS process and signed in the DMS minutes and records; and (ii) affected land was measured by machines by the local cadastral mapping agencies.

10. According to the meeting results with the affected households, relating documents such as notices of land acquisition, minutes of inventory of affected assets, detailed compensation plans, and approved resettlement plan were publicly informed to people in the project area, especially informed to the affected households. All affected households kept the DMD copies and understood the contents of these documents very well.

b. Detailed Measurement Survey and Compensation and Support Payment

11. The DMS was carried out in accordance with the Government’s procedures and the regulations set up in the Project’s Resettlement Policy Framework. The consultation results with the affected people on the DMS accuracy show that all surveyed households confirmed that they participated in the DMS process for their affected assets and their household heads signed in the DMS minutes and records. All surveyed households confirmed the inventory of the affected quantity. At the same time, the surveyed households said that the DMS results were publicized to the households and they all agreed with the results.

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12. Compensation prices: The compensation prices applied for the households affected by the Project are the ones issued by Dak Lak Provincial People's Committee in 2017, which are consistent with the market prices and determined by K coefficient method (K = 2.5). The unit prices and the decisions that approved the compensation plans were consulted and agreed with the affected households before the issuance. According to the results of interviews with the affected people, all affected households agreed with the results of the compensation plans and the compensation amount they received.

c. Income Restoration Program for Vulnerable and Severely Affected People

13. During the implementation of the Project, the Project Assistant Consultant (PMIS) has conducted surveys to develop the Project's income restoration program proposing the use of the City’s counterpart funding. However, the program gets difficult to reach the approval because the City is not able to allocate counterpart funding for the program implementation; therefore, it has not yet been approved and come into operation.

d. Physical Resettlement Implementation (Relocation)

14. Among 262 affected households, 13 households are resettled. To the present time, 100% of the affected households received compensation and handed over their affected land for the Project’s construction. The resettled households were allocated land allotments in Residential Area N7.5-N7.24 in Thanh Nhat Ward, Buon Ma Thuat City. This is the City’s existing resettlement site and the infrastructure here is ready for use (electricity, water and transport infrastructure).

15. These households received land allotments in the above resettlement site to build houses. Each household was granted with 01 land allotment with an averaging area of 106m2 - 117m2 and they must pay 7,300,000 - 13,800,000 VND/m2 for their land allotments at the period of the price determination from December 2016 to February 2017. According to the preliminary assessment, the land prices increased by 1.97 times compared to the land prices stipulated in Decision No.43/2014/QD-UBND by Dak Lak Province People’s Committee. Meanwhile at the present time (April 2019) the prices of these land allotments are estimated at VND 24,000,000/m2.

e. Grievance Redress and Mechanism

16. The compliance and effectiveness of complaints are considered in two respects: (i) The Grievance Redress Mechanism; and (ii) the time of complaint settlement. The Grievance Redress Mechanism was developed in the Resettlement Policy Framework and disseminated to the affected households through the community consultations.

17. According to the interview results with the affected households, people understood the Project Grievance Redress Mechanism. They have claimed pursuantly to the procedure via each level, from the city level to the provincial level, and received feedback from the competent authorities (the Provincial People's Committee issued documents authorizing the city-level authorities to solve complaints). They even got the support of lawyers to develop their claims to ensure that the contents of the claims are clear and in accordance with the law.

18. According to the interview results with the affected households, although the complaints they made are in accordance with the Law on Complaints but they have not achieved their desire and they understood that the Project is funded by the ADB, therefore they want accessing to multi-information channels such as via newspapers or to the ADB... According to

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the interview results, although they knew that these channels are not in accordance with the procedure, they still want to access to get supports of all stakeholders.

19. Specific Outstanding Issues: Till the present time (April 2019), most households affected by the Project no longer complained about any Project’s compensation and support issues and handed over the acquired land area to the Project for construction. However, there are still 03 cases (two cases have stopped complaining, except one case of Vu Anh Quan household, represented by his mother, Mrs. Dao Thu Ha). Vu Anh Quan household received a resettlement land allotment but has not accepted the price of VND 13,800,000/m2 which the Provincial People's Committee approved and said that the household only accepts VND 10,263,000/m2 – which is the unit price based on Valuation Deed No.271/BDS-2018/CT -TTA on August 7, 2018 by Trung Tin Consulting and Price Appraisal Joint Stock Company, which was appraised and agreed in the meeting dated 10/8/2018 between Buon Ma Thuot City Land-fund Development Center, Buon Ma Thuot City People's Committee of Buon Ma Thuot City, and the concerned professional departments.

20. Household Vu Anh Quan submitted complaints for two times to Dak Lak Provincial People's Committee, Buon Ma Thuot City Land-fund Development Center Fund, and Dak Lak Province Inspectorate on December 18, 2018 on the resettlement land allocation prices regulated by Dak Lak Provincial People's Committee in Decision No.3220/QD-UBND dated November 27, 2018 proving specific land prices for land allotment allocation in Residential Area N7.5 - N7.24 in Thanh Nhat Ward, Buon Ma Thuot City.

21. Dak Lak Provincial People's Committee authorized Buon Ma Thuot City People's Committee to answer to the complaint. Buon Ma Thuot City People's Committee assigned Buon Ma Thuot City Land-fund Development Center to handle the complaint; and Buon Ma Thuot City Land-fund Development Center issued a written dispatch on December 21, 2018 to answer the household. The main content is cited as follows:

On October 22, 2018, the Price Appraisal Committee of the Provincial People’s Committee determined: Based on the market prices to prioritize to select information about successful prices for awarding land-use rights in accordance with the regulations in Clause 1, Article 3 of Circular No.36/2014/TT-BTNMT dated June 30, 2014 by the Ministry of Natural Resource and Environment regulating “prioritizing to select information about successful prices for awarding land-use rights, successful land transactions on real estate trading floor, market prices on land database, and the most recent information at the land pricing period and the land pricing locations….” In comparison with the successful prices for awarding land-use rights (from Dec. 2016 to Feb. 2017) in Lien Gia Group No.33 in Thanh Nhat Ward, Buon Ma Thuot City that the average successful prices for awarding land-use rights is about 13,800,000 VND/m2 for favorable locations and 7,300,000 VND/m2 for unfavorable locations. Accordingly, the Price Appraisal Committee of the Provincial People’s Committee submitted the said prices to the Provincial People’s Committee for approval.

22. Till April 10, 2019 (the independent monitoring stage), Household Vu Anh Quan has not agreed with the dispatch from Buon Ma Thuot City Land-fund Development Center and he has continued the third complaint on March 27, 2019. Currently this complaint is being handled by the City’s concerned authorities.

C. Conclusions and Recommendations

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23. According to the independent monitoring results in April 2019, the Independent Monitoring Consultant’s recognitions are as follows:

(i) Buon Ma Thuot City Land-fund Development Center organized the Project’s site clearance and resettlement for the affected households in accordance with the Project’s compensation, support and resettlement procedures.

(ii) The affected households were compensated and supported for their affected land and property on affected land for the construction of Mai Thi Luu road in accordance with the procedures outlined in the Project Resettlement Policy Framework and Land Law 2013.

(iii) The income restoration support for the vulnerable and severely affected households has not started according to the plan as the City People's Committee has not approved the plan due to the counterpart funding difficulty. Therefore, the Independent Monitoring Consultant would like to suggest that the project integrates the implementation of the income restoration program with the City’s existing programs to ensure that the income restoration support will be provided to the vulnerable and severely affected households at the soonest.

(iv) With regard to the claim by the affected household on the resettlement land allocation prices issued by Dak Lak Provincial People's Committee in Decision No.3220/QD-UBND dated November 27, 2018, the Independent Monitoring Consultant found that the reason of the claim are due to (i) not providing clear information on resettlement land allocation prices in the resettlement area at the time of making decisions on compensation, support and resettlement plans of the Project; and (ii) very long time for preparation and issuance of decisions on compensation, support and resettlement plans of the Project (including the decision on land prices for land allocation in the resettlement area), which extended for more than one year and resulted significant inconsistency between the project affected people and the compensation implementation organizations. Therefore, in order to thoroughly overcome the above issue, Dak Lak Provincial People's Committee should assign relevant agencies to review and determine again the land prices (resettlement land allocation prices in Residential Area N7.5- 7.24, Thanh Nhat Ward, Buon Ma Thuot City), at the time of the compensation, support and resettlement of the construction of Mai Thi Luu road (July 2017) on the basis of consultation with the affected people before issuing the final decision on land price approval.

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D. Annexes:

Annex 1: Relevant legal documents

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Annex 2: Field survey pictures

VIE: Secondary Cities Development Project Buon Ma Thuot City … · 2019-10-01 · SECONDARY CITIES...

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