Defendants at the court (Photo: VNA) The three defendants are among the 12 who filedappeals in the case.
Dau Van Hung, former General Director of Vietnam SteelCorporation (VNS), and Hoang Ngoc Diep, former member of the Board of Directorsof TISCO, who had been sentenced to three years and two years in prison at thefirst-instance trial, respectively, both got a suspended sentence as they have fullydealt with consequences.
Uong Sy Binh, former deputy head of the accounting andfinance division at TISCO, will spend one and a half years in prison instead oftwo years as ruled at the first-instance trial due to his old age and healthproblems.
The High-level People’s Court upheld the rulings of the previoustrial for the nine others, including Tran Trong Mung, former Director Generalof TISCO, who was sentenced to nine years and six months behind bars.
The eight others got jail terms ranging from 18 monthsto seven years, for “violating regulations on management and use of Stateassets causing losses and wastefulness” and “lacking responsibility causingserious consequences.”
According to the indictment issued by the SupremePeople’s Procuracy, the VNS Board of Directors decided to invest in the secondphase of TISCO’s production expansion project which initially had totalinvestment of more than 3.8 trillion VND (164.9 million USD at the currentexchange rate). The China Metallurgical Group Corporation (MCC) won theconstruction bid in 2007.
On July 12, 2007, then TISCO General Director TranTrong Mung and MCC General Director Shen Heting signed an engineering,procurement, and construction (EPC) contract worth over 160 million USD(equivalent to over 3.5 trillion VND). It was stipulated that the value, includingtaxes and expenses necessary for contract implementation, was to not changeduring the implementation process.
TISCO and MCC launched implementation on September 29,2007. However, more than 11 months after the contract took effect, MCC hadfailed to select or sign contracts with subcontractors, or carry out the EPCcontract. Instead, it proposed extending the contract implementation durationand raising the contract value by more than 138 million USD.
The indictment said that although individuals at TISCOand VNS were aware that MCC had infringed the contract and groundlesslyproposed the implementation extension and value hike, they did not considercontract termination, revocation of the advance, or reporting the matter tocompetent persons to abolish the bidding result and re-organise the biddingprocess so as to ensure the project’s effectiveness and progress.
Among the defendants, Mung held the overallresponsibility for the project’s effectiveness while Tinh was in charge ofapproving and directing project implementation.
The Supreme People’s Procuracy held that theviolations of rules on the management of State assets and the lack of a senseof responsibility by those at TISCO and VNS caused losses of over 830 billionVND to the State. The sum is the interest rate TISCO had to pay to banks forthe period from the time the project began falling behind schedule, on May 31,2011, to the date an official investigation was launched, on April 18, 2019.
The defendants’ criminal acts not only adverselyaffected economic development and had a direct negative impact on productionand business activities and the interests of employees at TISCO, they alsoindirectly affected the process of promoting rapid and sustainable economicdevelopment, becoming a burden on the national economy and causing a loss oftrust in society./.
VNA
