Cang was among 66 Party members found guilty of violations in acquiring lands for the urban area and which were reviewed for punishment by the city Party unit's Inspection Committee on Friday.

Cang, who is now standing vice chairman of the steering committee for the "Ho Chi Minh City's history" project, was found to have committed violations meriting disciplinary action.

However, since that was barred by the statute of limitations, the Party unit decided to criticize him instead.

Phan Thi Thang, vice chairwoman of the city People's Council, and Bui Xuan Cuong, head of the city's Urban Railway Management Board, too were criticized for similar reasons.

Three others, including a former head of the Thu Thiem New Urban Area project management, received official warnings while two were reprimanded.

The Inspection Committee also criticized six more officials and 38 other Party members for violations that were not severe enough to merit disciplinary action.

The remaining 13 were either let off or had decisions related to their punishment postponed because they suffer from some serious illness or are no longer Party members.

The Communist Party has four levels of punishment for its members: reprimand, warning, demotion, and expulsion.

The background

The Central Inspection Committee concluded in 2018 that Cang, while serving as director of the city's Department of Transport, had violated land and construction investment regulations by signing a build-transfer contract with Dai Quang Minh Construction Investment JSC in 2013 for building four major roads running a total of nearly 12 kilometers (7.5 miles) in the Thu Thiem New Urban Area.

He had approved the VND12.2 trillion ($524 million) work and in exchange allotted 79 hectares of land to the company to develop commercial and residential projects.

But he had no power to approve investments of that scale, with regulations at the time limiting municipal administrations’ powers to VND1.5 trillion.

Cang was also found to have committed serious violations in a deal that saw a land parcel in Nha Be District belonging to the city Party unit being sold at well below market price to a private firm, resulting in a loss of over VND150 billion.

For this, he was dismissed in December 2018 as deputy Party secretary and member of the Party Central Committee and the city Party unit's standing committee for 2015-20 tenure.

But he remains a People's Council delegate representing District 10.