The committee said Sunday that Party Navy leaders including Admiral Nguyen Van Hien, former Vice Minister of National Defense, Vice Admiral Nguyen Van Tinh and Rear Admiral Le Van Dao were responsible for several land management violations.

Their violations resulted in major financial losses and badly affected the reputation of the Communist Party and the People’s Navy, the committee said. Further details were not revealed.

It advised that party authorities duly punish the leaders who have committed the violations.

The committee also said that two leaders of Military Zone 9, which is in charge of Vietnam's southern Mekong Delta, have committed violations in using land that belonged to the defense forces. It identified the violators as Lt General Nguyen Hoang Thuy and Deputy Chief of Staff Truong Thanh Nam.

Thuy has received a formal warning, while Nam has been expelled from all party positions.

The scrutiny of officers came shortly after Party chief and President Nguyen Phu Trong, who spearheads the country's anti-corruption campaign, said in January it was expanding to the military, that he wanted the military’s bosses to root out corrupt practices in managing and using its assets.

In the past three years Vietnam's sweeping corruption crackdown has ensnared scores of high-profile officials, especially in the energy and banking sectors.

Last year a large number of officials and businesspeople were prosecuted for corruption charges.

In April 2018, Colonel Dinh Ngoc He became the first senior military official to be imprisoned. He was sentenced to 12 years for "abusing power in the performance of official duties" and "using fake documents."

In July two senior Air Force officers and the Party units they were affiliated to received official warnings for mismanagement of military land.

Several top former officials in Ho Chi Minh City and Da Nang, the latter often considered the country's third most important city, are also being investigated for mismanagement of public land.