Ex-Minister of Health Nguyen Thanh Long at the trial. (Photo: VNA) Hanoi (VNA) – The Hanoi People's Court on January 3 commenced the first-instance trial of 38 defendants involving in a case at Viet A Technology JSC, the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Science and Technology (MoST), and relevant units and organisations.
The defendants face charges proposed by the Supreme People's Procuracy, including violating bidding regulations, causing serious consequences; violating regulations on State asset management, causing losses and wastefulness; giving and receiving bribes; abusing position and power while on duty; and taking advantage of influence over persons holding positions of power for personal gains.
Among them, both Chairman of the Board of Directors and General Director of Viet A Company Phan Quoc Viet, and Deputy General Director of Viet A Company Vu Dinh Hiep were prosecuted for the charges of “violating bidding regulations, causing serious damages” and “giving bribes”. Previously, Viet and Hiep were sentenced to 25 years and 6 six years in prison, respectively, by the Hanoi military court with their verdicts not yet legally effective.
Six shared the charge of “receiving bribes”, namely ex-Minister of Health Nguyen Thanh Long and his ex-secretary Nguyen Huynh, ex-Director of the Hai Duong Centre for Disease Control (CDC) Pham Duy Tuyen, ex-deputy head of the Science and Technology Department under the Ministry of Science and Technology Trinh Thanh Hung, ex-head of the Department of Health Equipment and Works under the Ministry of Health Nguyen Minh Tuan, and ex-head of the Department of Financial Planning under the Ministry of Health Nguyen Nam Lien.
Both Chu Ngoc Anh, ex-Minister of Science and Technology, and Pham Cong Tac, ex-Deputy Minister of Science and Technology, were charged with “violating regulations on the management and use of State assets, causing losses and wastefulness.”
According to the indictment, amidst the COVID-19 outbreak, the Board of Directors of the Vietnam Military Medical University sent a document to the MoST, proposing the task of developing COVID-19 test kits.
The accused managed to engage the Viet A company into the test kit development project worth 18.9 billion VND (over 781,400 USD) and helped it get a licence to illegally produce the test kits.
In December 2021, police arrested and initiated legal proceedings against Viet for raising the price of RT-PCR COVID-19 test kits and giving bribes to health officials to sell their test kits.
Viet and key leaders of the company had admitted to colluding with leaders of hospitals and Centres for Disease Control (CDCs) to supply COVID-19 test kits to hospitals and CDCs at prices set by the company, which were much higher than the production price.
The Viet A company sold more than 4.5 million test kits, causing loss of 1,235 billion VND, including 402 billion VND for the State.
The Ministry of Public Security’s Investigation Police Agency froze transactions and deposits and confiscated a total of around 1.7 trillion VND (73.9 million USD) in connection with this case.
The trial is set to last for 20 days./.
