The use of public property must be managed transparently to minimise legal loopholes that results in the misuse of the property by individuals and agencies, it was agreed at a recent meeting held by the Ministry of Finance on the matter.

Public property includes land, houses, cars and other assets which are worth more than 500 million VND (23,000 USD).

According to the National Database, as of December last year, the total value of public property had reached nearly 1,000 trillion VND (45.8 billion USD).

Property worth 690.5 trillion VND (31.6 billion USD) was managed by more than 59,000 government agencies, accounting for 69 percent of total assets.

Speaking at the meeting, the head of the ministry's State Asset Management Department, Tran Duc Thang, said several agencies allocated with public property had used their capital to increase operational efficiency whilst giving pay rises to employees and making additional contributions to the State Budget.

However, the shortcoming remained in the management and use of public property. Many assets managed by certain State-owned enterprises had been misused, said Thang.

He said the mechanism to allocate public capital to self-financing enterprises allowed them to use the assets to make a profit.

However, the method of defining the value of public property and self-financing enterprises was not up to scratch.

The ministry would review and adjust processes and procedures used to define the value of property as well as increase the number of government self-financing agencies that receive public assets, Thang told the meeting.-VNA