An official from the inspectorate of Ca Mau Province, in Vietnam’s Mekong Delta, has been arrested for allegedly falsifying official documents.

Ngo Truong Son, head of the anti-corruption office under the provincial inspectorate, has beenapprehended and will be kept in custody for three months after porportedly creating a fake document, the Ca Mau Department of Police confirmed on Sunday.

According to the case file, residents of Khanh Thuan Commune, U Minh District, shared a document signed on January 10, which claimed that the Ca Mau Inspectorate had asked the inspector-general to resolve complaints made by residents.

The paper included a request to inspect U Minh Ha Forestry Company, which was suspected of non compliance to inspection conclusion No. 13/2014.

The Ca Mau Inspectorate refuted the existence of such a document and the request to inspect the forestry company, and Son was suspected of forging the paperwork.

Regarding the inspection conclusion No. 13/2014, approximately 130 households in Khanh Thuan Commune had previously demanded that they reclaim a piece of land, which had been appropriated by the U Minh Ha Company to create the Song Trem fishery and forestry zone in 1996.

An investigation revealed that the firm had not followed correct protocol when claiming the land, leading to the establishment of inspection conclusion No. 13/2014.

However, the provincial People’s Committee later claimed that U Minh Ha had been authorized by the state to reclaim and manage the land in question, and so the demands of the 130 households could not be met.

In his statement to police, Son said that he created the bogus document to “reassure” residents who had been waiting for the implementation of the inspection conclusion, online media outlet Dan Tri reported.

Son added he only let locals read the paper before taking it back. However, they managed to take a photo of it.

In a related development, the provincial administration announced compensation in September for the labor of 130 households on the disputed piece of land.

The compensation is stated at VND4.1 billion (US$ 180,718), of which VND2.5 billion ($110,194) has already been paid.

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