Wasteful when delaying the handling of illegal exhibits

Hard to sell, hard to keep

Many shipments in the warehouse of the Provincial Market Management Department; many blocks of rosewood and acacia wood at the Forest Protection Department; thousands of motorbikes and cars at the confiscated parking lots at the district police headquarters in Hai Duong are still waiting to be processed due to regulations.

This is the situation assessed through thematic supervision at the end of October by the Standing Committee of Hai Duong Provincial People's Council on the management and handling of assets as evidence and means of administrative violations confiscated in the province.

According to the report, in the period of 2021-2023, Hai Duong provincial police discovered and handled 3,767 administrative violation cases with confiscated exhibits and vehicles, with a total of more than 91,300 exhibits and vehicles.

In 2021, the total value of confiscated vehicles and assets was nearly 14.4 billion VND; the amount collected to the state budget through auction and liquidation of illegal exhibits was more than 12.8 billion VND. In 2022, the total value of assets was nearly 5.3 billion VND, earning more than 3.1 billion VND. In 2023, the total value was more than 4 billion VND, earning more than 1 billion VND.

Currently, units under the Hai Duong Provincial Police do not have a temporary warehouse to store evidence and means of administrative violations that meet the prescribed conditions and standards. District-level police units often renovate a fairly large area right at their headquarters to use as a shed to store confiscated motorbikes.

These are vehicles that have been abandoned by their owners and have not been picked up after being fined for high administrative violations, mainly for alcohol violations. Many of the vehicles are modified, without legal documents and must be confiscated. The procedures for handling these vehicles are very complicated. Keeping and preserving these exhibits is also a big problem, especially the risk of fire and explosion.

At the Market Management Department of Hai Duong province, a warehouse containing confiscated goods is located right in the headquarters of the unit on Bac Son street (Quang Trung ward). Here, nearly 20 tons of goods including accessories and raw materials for shoe production are kept, related to the case from 2006 to the present.

Over the past 18 years, the Market Management Department of Hai Duong province has not received any results from the police handling the case.as a basis for handling the above exhibits. The Provincial Market Management Department has repeatedly sent documents reflecting the storage and preservation of a large number of exhibits for nearly 20 years, affecting the unit's operations; requested to provide information on the results of the investigation of the case or to receive and hand over the exhibits for management and handling, but there have been no results.

Slow handling of illegal items causes waste due to loss of value and loss of human resources, warehouse management and preservation costs.

Caught up in many regulations

The delay in handling administrative violation evidence as in the above situation comes from many causes, including legal regulations.

In particular, regulations on determining value, conditions for organizing auctions, liquidating assets and developing and approving plans to handle vehicles and exhibits of administrative violations still have many problems.

Currently, market management teams, police agencies... must develop plans to handle assets after decisions on administrative sanctions and confiscation are made, then submit them to the Central agencies such as the General Department of Market Management, the Department of Planning and Finance... for approval of the plan.

According to Hai Duong Provincial Police, this has led to a delay in processing confiscated assets. There are currently no specific regulations on the time limit for responding to the requesting unit, leading to delays in responding, prolonging the processing time, causing difficulties in management and preservation, and reducing the value of assets.

On the other hand, according to the Market Management Department of Hai Duong province, the Central agencies are the units that give opinions on the handling plan but do not have the conditions to directly inspect to assess the quality of the assets before giving opinions, so the approval of the handling plan is limited.

Mr. Vu Minh Hai, Head of the General Department of Market Management of Hai Duong province, said: "To organize an auction of exhibits and vehicles, it requires many procedures, many steps and is costly. Many times, the amount of money collected from the auction of assets is less than the cost of organizing the auction process."

In many cases, goods auctioned at listed prices are rarely purchased. Multiple unsuccessful auctions lead to deterioration of goods, out of trend and demand, especially with clothing.

In case of unsuccessful auction, there is currently no regulation on price reduction in case of re-auction of confiscated property or means of administrative violation (there is only regulation on price reduction when reselling in case of listed sale according to regulations in Clause 8, Article 26 of Decree No. 151/2017/ND-CP). Therefore, if the starting price is kept the same as the original, it will be difficult to successfully auction.

The above reality shows that it is urgent to research, amend and perfect the legal system on handling exhibits and means of administrative violations to resolve the above-mentioned problems and some other shortcomings, avoiding waste when assets are processed slowly.