20 years in jail sought for ex health minister in Covid test scandal

Long, 57, is charged with taking VND51 billion (US$2.25 million) from Viet A Company to let it sell the kits at inflated prices.

Former chairman of Hanoi Chu Ngoc Anh should get three-four years in jail while former Hai Duong Province Party secretary Pham Xuan Thang should stay for five-six years behind bars, according to the Hanoi People’s Procuracy.

Thang, 58, is charged with abusing power while performing official duties and accepting a bribe of VND4 billion, and Anh, 58, faces charges of causing a loss of nearly VND19 billion to the government from his violations of state asset management regulations.

For the same charge of taking bribes, the jail terms were proposed at 14-15 years for Trinh Thanh Hung, a former deputy department head at the Ministry of Science and Technology, 13-14 years for Pham Duy Tuyen, former director of Hai Duong Province’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention, eight-nine years each for Nguyen Minh Tuan, former head of the Department of Health Equipment and Works, and Nguyen Nam Lien, former head of the Department of Financial Planning, and nine-ten years for Nguyen Huynh, former secretary of Long.

The prosecutors said Monday that when the pandemic broke out, several senior leaders in several ministries, departments, and localities colluded with Viet A for personal benefit.

The defendants turned the test kit from the state’s property into Viet A’s, creating particularly large illegal profits.

The Procuracy assessed that those officials were “corrupt and degenerate,” violating the integrity of the state and causing a loss of trust in the public.

As concluded by prosecutors, former minister Long suggested Viet bribe him.

Long admitted to having taken the bribes from Viet but denied all allegations saying he hinted at the bribes.

However, his secretary Huynh testified that it was Long who told him to suggest the bribes.

Phan Quoc Viet, CEO and chairman of Viet A, is proposed to be jailed for 15-16 years for violating regulations on bidding, causing serious consequences and another 15-16 years for giving bribes.

Another Hanoi court in late December had sentenced Viet to 25 years in jail for abuse of power and fraud. The judge panel then accused him of submitting the test kit for a license as a state product.

Phan Quoc Viet is taken to a court in Hanoi on Jan. 8, 2024. Photo by VnExpress/Ngoc Thanh

After Covid broke out, Hung from the science ministry began a research project to make a test kit in 2020.

He signed up Viet and Ho Anh Son, a former deputy director of a research institute run by the Military Medical School, for the purpose.

The school was commissioned to make the kit, and it received more than VND18 billion ($740,000) in government funding, but the kit submitted for licensing by the health ministry was Viet A’s.

Viet A had earlier applied for a license on its own but was refused.

After illegally obtaining the license in March 2020, Viet A produced and sold it on a large scale.

But in June 2022 the health ministry revoked the license after determining the licensing process had not followed proper protocols.

In 2020 and 2021, Viet A produced 8.7 million Covid-19 test kits and sold 8.3 million of them at prices three times higher than the actual cost.

The company was paid VND2.25 trillion by the state and was accused of having illegally gained VND1.235 trillion.