Tran Van Minh, 63, leader from 2006 to 2011, and Van Huu Chien, 64, leader from 2011 to 2014, face charges for wrongdoing in connection with land and public property administration and use, the Ministry of Public Security said in a report last week.

Its investigators found the two had signed a number of documents to transfer land use rights to Phan Van Anh Vu, a city real estate tycoon and briefly a fugitive from the law.

The probe into the two former leaders in fact began with an investigation into Vu’s dubious acquisition of public lands.

During Minh’s time as chairman Vu established five real estate companies that managed to acquire a lot of public lands and secure housing projects.

Minh allegedly enabled the tycoon to acquire the assets without going through any bidding process and often at below market prices. He then approved Vu’s sale of the lands.

In all, Vu acquired 18 public property projects and seven land lots, causing an estimated loss of more than VND22 trillion ($949 million) to the city.

According to investigators, Minh had been supported by Chien, then his deputy. The latter signed a series of decisions allowing the transfer of land and projects to Vu and setting their prices, all of them subsequently found illegal.

When he took over as chairman in 2011 he continued to authorize the sale of public assets to Vu at below market prices, causing a loss of VND14 trillion.

“What Tran Van Minh and Van Huu Chien committed caused huge losses to the state budget, violated public trust and caused public distress,” the police said.

37 assets acquired by Vu have been seized so far.

The Ministry of Public Security is also investigating 19 other people, including Vu, in this case.

They include a former director and deputy director of the city finance department, two former directors of the natural resources department, a former deputy chief of staff of the city, and a former head of the people’s committee’s urban management office.

Vu, 44, used to be one of the biggest developers in Da Nang, the third largest city in Vietnam after Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.

He also ran businesses in HCMC and manipulated public land prices there. Several former HCMC officials are also being investigated for their role in Vu’s violations.

The biggest casualties in the case so far are former deputy public security ministers Bui Van Thanh, 60, and Tran Viet Tan, 64, who were imprisoned last January for “dereliction of responsibility, causing serious consequences.”

Vu is awaiting trial in this case even as he serves an eight-year sentence for disclosing state secrets and a 17-year sentence for misappropriating more than VND200 billion ($8.6 million) from Dong A Bank.

The city will use VND1.94 trillion from its own budget and call for the rest from private investors, officials said.

The new plan targets to have all society segments, from families to industrial parks and state agencies, sort trash at source.

The fund will be used to build new facilities and upgrade existing ones to treat waste after it has been sorted. The city wants to have 95 percent of its domestic solid waste collected and treated, and stop burying trash by 2020.

The ratio of waste that is recycled and reused should be at least 12 percent by 2020 and 15 percent by 2025, under the new plan.

According to the municipal Department of Environment and Natural Resources, Da Nang, which is currently home to 1.2 million residents, discards 1,100 tons of domestic solid waste each day.

The figure is predicted to rise to 1,800 tons in 2020-2013, over 2,400 tons in 2025-2030 and more than 3,000 tons in 2030-2040.

In July, Da Nang encountered a trash problem when local residents protested against a proposed waste treatment complex by blocking entry to it for garbage trucks.

People living near Khanh Son landfill in Lien Chieu District, the only one in the city, blocked its entry after failing to persuade city authorities not to turn it into a solid waste treatment complex which burns trash at the landfill.

Khanh Son, in use as a landfill now for nearly three decades, has become overloaded and a source of pollution.

Locals have been demanding for long that authorities move the facility and have blocked garbage trucks several times in protest.

Authorities had promised that the landfill would be shifted this year, but they changed their mind in May, saying moving was not feasible because there was no solution for the existing 3.2 million tons of trash in the landfill.

In May, the city, the third largest in Vietnam after Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, had asked the Military Zone 5 Command for 7.7 hectares (19 acres) of land for expanding the landfill. Military Zone 5 covers the Central Highlands and south-central Vietnam.

Da Nang has transformed over the last few decades from a sleepy fishing town to a major tourism destination with long beaches and upscale resorts.

Home to Asia’s most beautiful beach My Khe and next door to the UNESCO heritage site Hoi An ancient town, Da Nang received 1.9 million foreign tourist arrivals in the first seven months of this year, up 11.2 percent against the same period last year.