Vietnam's government found it impossible for An Giang Province to redistribute 322,000 cubic metres of sand in one day. The inspection also found violations by companies extracting material for expressways.
The decision was valid for one day
According to the inspection conclusion, on 5 March 2026 the People's Committee of Can Tho asked An Giang Province to provide sand for the Chau Doc - Can Tho - Soc Trang expressway section through the city.
On 30 March, An Giang issued a document confirming the redistribution. It was valid only until the following day, although about 322,000 cubic metres had to be extracted and transported.
The inspection found the one-day deadline impossible. It affected the project's ability to mobilise material and did not comply with rules on allocating minerals to important works. Responsibility was assigned to An Giang's People's Committee and related organisations and officials.
Some companies licensed to extract sand for expressways were not meeting capacity or extracting their full authorised volumes. At the MS05 mine, Tổng công ty Xây dựng công trình giao thông 5 extracted just over 1,400 cubic metres out of 650,000, or about 0.23%.
At the MS04 mine, Công ty TNHH TMDV Hòa Tuấn had an annual capacity of 725,000 cubic metres but supplied contractors with just over 74,000 cubic metres in the first six months of 2026. Usually one or two vessels operated daily, below the 8–10 vessels proposed in its licence application.
The company failed to pay a VND 2.08 billion fine, VND 800 million in land rent, and more than VND 1.2 billion in resource tax and environmental fees. Inspectors also found that it underreported 1,408 cubic metres of sand. Can Tho revoked its MS04 extraction licence on 23 July 2026.
The inspectors' recommendations
The Government Inspectorate recommended collecting the company's unpaid taxes and fees, late-payment charges and administrative penalties, and accelerating recovery of overdue tax debts. Can Tho was asked to arrange an alternative material source for component project 4.
An Giang was asked to allocate surplus sand to important works and speed up procedures at the Núi Dài and Trà Đuốc Lạn mines. The Ministry of Industry and Trade was asked to study additional penalties for extraction below licensed capacity.
Sources: Thanh Niên
