Vietnam - Contractors flee, leaving schools uncompleted

Many K-12 students have to be content with cramped classrooms after the builders of three new state schools in the central province of Quang Ngai have fled, leaving the construction unfinished for a long time.

The building of the Number 2 School, estimated to cost almost VND2.3 billion (US$110,000), in Tay Tra District has been inactive since 2010, locals said.

It is designed as a two-story school that can admit students of many levels and the construction should have been completed last year, Do Minh Lam, vice chairman of the Tay Tra People’s Committee, said.

“We threatened to sue the contractor,” Lam said, “so they promised to resume their work in October”.

“But they have disappeared so far because of labor costs.”

Vu Tien Lam, the school president, warned that it will cost more when the finished sections become degraded.

The development of two other schools, Ba Tieu Kindergarten and Ba Giang Elementary School, both located in Ba To District, has also been asleep for quite a long time after the constructors ran away.

Only a few items, including several pillars, have been finished at Ba Giang as yet, Truong Dinh Uyen, the school president, said.

About 300 students are taking turns studying in six small-sized classrooms there at the moment, Uyen added.

Ba To education board chief Dinh Thi Thu Hien said that Ba Tieu documents have been submitted to local police for investigation while another contractor has taken over the Ba Giang project.

Tran Van Nhan, director of the Quang Ngai Department of Planning and Investment, said that the provincial people’s committee has directed authorities in the two districts to crack down on the runaway contractors, as the schools are built with state funds.

TUOI TRE

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