A legislative session in Hanoi heard complaints from a group of apartment-dwellers on Monday who all said they had to bribe someone for the deed to their home.

“It’s complicated” was all the Minister of Natural Resources Pham Minh Quang had to say when confronted with the claims.

Nguyen Sy Cuong of the National Assembly's Legal Committee told the minister he had received numerous complaints from citizens who claimed they were asked to pay as much as VND8 million (US$377) in “smooth-out” money to receive the deed promised in their real estate contract.

Such complaints are fairly common, but they seemed particularly numerous among residents of the Me Tri Thuong apartment building in Nam Tu Liem District and the Hapulico building in Thanh Xuan District, Cuong said.

Under Vietnamese law, investors in apartment buildings may only apply for ownership papers when construction is complete.

As such, most apartment buyers here have paid most of the cost of their apartment by the time they can move in.

And most literally wait years before receiving official ownership certificates.

As such, some opt to bribe officials for the papers, without which they cannot resell the apartment or claim compensation in the event that they are relocated.

“There are many projects where the developer provides apartments for years and never mentions ownership papers,” Cuong said.

“And the people said that the most basic reason for the delay is the [officials'] desire for bribes,” he told the minister.

Quang replied that the process of registering for land and house-use rights varies from area to area.

“It’s especially complicated in urban areas like Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City,” he said.

Quang said he has sent members of his staff to Hanoi to investigate the issue and added that “the situation has improved a lot.”

He said the ministry will enhance its oversight on procedures for issuing apartment use rights.

When the assembly’s vice chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan and Hanoi deputy Bui Thi An pushed him for more specific solutions to the problem, the minister said he would provide a more detailed written answer in the future.

Red tape, among other problems, drives a majority of Vietnamese to resort to bribery as a common means of obtaining things they are legally entitled to, such as a deed to their house, medical attention or a slot at a public school.

During the same session, Do Van Duong, a member of the National Assembly's Justice Committee, asked the minister whether the illegal extraction of natural resources, like sand, has been facilitated by corrupt officials.

“According to the residents, it’s not easy to receive such a license, and a single sand barge dredging on the Red River can make VND50-60 million (US$2,360-2,830) a day,” Duong said.

He also pointed to "overly soft” penalties for such crimes--which include administrative censures and fines.

“You gobble up the nation's most precious resources and you just lose your license or pay some fines? [Those people] must be held criminally responsible for embezzling natural resources.

“The Penal Code should be amended to raise the top punishment to death,” Duong said.

Quang agreed that the punishment is too lenient and should be made tougher.

Tags: Co Nhan Tao, Giuong Tang Tre Em

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The alleged abduction of Arkansas real estate agent Beverly Carter, who vanished after showing a house to prospective customer, has her colleagues nervous about going to meet clients.

"They're scared and I need someone to give them some reassurance," said Brenda Rhoads, the principal broker at the real estate company where Carter worked.

Rhoads, who is good friends with Carter and worked with her for nine years, told ABC News that she arranged for a police detective to come and speak to her colleagues at Crye Leike Real Estate Services today to try and calm their fears even though Carter is still missing.

Some have said that Carter, a 50-year-old grandmother, should not have met the prospective buyer alone, but Rhoads dismissed those critiques, saying, "That's our job."

"I would say that 80 percent of my agents are women, but the men, they are devastated too," she said.

Little Rock police have apprehended the suspect in Carter's disappearance, Arron Lewis, and he spent much of today being questioned by the Pulaski County Sheriff's Department.

But Carter is still missing.

"The search crews are still out there," Sheriff's Department spokesman Lt. Carl Minden told ABC. "They've been out there since the day she went missing and they're continuing even though he's in custody. They're still going through their search patterns."

Minden said that investigators might be able to alter their search depending on information gathered in their meetings with Lewis, but "it hasn't (happened) as of yet."

According to her work website, Carter is the third-ranking real estate agent in Arkansas and is a member of a local industry board.

"She's the type of person who would do anything for anybody," Rhoads said.

"Beverly's the type of person, she's very bubbly. Beverly's laugh is contagious you could hear it throughout the office," she said.

Rhoads said that Beverly has been married to her husband Carl since she was just 16. The couple has two grown sons who live nearby with their four grandchildren and a fifth is on the way. They've lived in Arkansas for more than 30 years, and all three of their sons –- one died in a car crash about a decade ago –- were born in the state and they spend much of their free time on the lake near their home.

"Carl fishes a little bit, but Beverly mostly likes just being on the water. She's what you'd call a sun goddess," Rhoads said. "Beverly's beautiful. She's got the most beautiful smile. She's beautiful inside and out."

Both friends and investigators are holding onto hope that they will be able to find Carter and when they do, they think she'll appreciate how the missing posters mistakenly identified her as 49 rather than her real age, 50.

"Beverly turned 50 last December and had a huge blow out party for it, but afterwards she said she wanted to be 49 forever," Rhoads said. "Her daughter-in-law was laughing about it now saying Beverly would love it that they're telling people she's 49… All of us agents were like 'Really y'all? We had that big party. Are we going to do it again?'"

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