The committee also proposed the same punishment against Dao Anh Kiet, former director of the city's Department of Natural Resources and Environment.

It told the Party Secretariat that Tin and Kiet, both 63, had committed "serious violations of the law".

Tin was sentenced to seven years in prison last December, while Kiet received 6.5 years, both for violating regulations on management and use of state-owned property. The violations caused losses of millions of dollars to the state budget, the court ruled.

Tin was formally arrested last November, but he and Kiet had already been placed under house arrest two months earlier.

The arrests and investigation into the HCMC officials were part of an investigation of fraud related to public land in the city, linked to jailed tycoon Phan Van Anh Vu.

Tin was deputy chairman of Ho Chi Minh City in 2011-2016 and in charge of land and environment management.

In June 2015, Tin signed a decision to transfer a piece of public land in District 1 to Vu's Bac Nam 79 Company. The city later granted the company permission to construct an 18-story building there and change its land use purpose, thus completing the sale to Vu.

Investigators found the sale violated regulations related to state-owned land as it was sold without any bidding process.

Tin personally signed the decision based on Kiet's proposal.

Vu, 45, used to be one of the biggest developers in Da Nang, the third largest city in Vietnam after Hanoi and HCMC. He has to stay behind bars for 30 years starting 2018 for various violations, including "deliberately disclosing state secrets."

Expressway fraud

In another major case involving Party members, Le Quang Hao, deputy general director of the state-run Vietnam Expressway Corporation (VEC), was expelled from the Party – a decision approved by the Central Inspection Committee during a July 15-17 meeting.

Hao was arrested in May over violations in the construction of the Da Nang – Quang Ngai Expressway which caused "serious consequences". This is the first expressway built in central Vietnam.

Inspectors said Hao was responsible for not following procedures, standards and design requirements in overseeing the construction of a 65-kilometer section of the expressway, resulting in poor project quality.

Fourteen other people including employees of the corporation, the country's biggest expressway builder, members of the project management board and staff of other companies have also been arrested in the case.

Also Monday, two military major generals were warned and reprimanded by the Central Inspection Commission and disciplinary measures were proposed for a lieutenant general for violating "the principle of democratic centralism and working regulations as well as the law on land management and land use".