State auditor general proposed as new Hanoi chairman

If approved by Hanoi legislature, he will succeed Chu Ngoc Anh, who was dismissed over a Covid-19 test kit scandal.

The Politburo appointed Thanh as deputy secretary of the Hanoi Party Committee for the 2020-2025 period in a Friday announcement, said Hoang Dang Quang, deputy head of the Central Organization Commission.

Tran Sy Thanh after being appointed deputy head of Hanoi’s Communist Party unit, July 15, 2022. Photo by VnExpress/Ngoc Thanh

Thanh, 51, has held several senior positions at the Ministry of Finance, including deputy office head, office head and deputy director of the Vietnam State Treasury.

Since 2008, he has been deputy chairman of Dak Lak, Secretary of the Bac Giang Party Committee, Secretary of the Lang Son Party Committee and deputy head of the Central Inspection Commission.

In 2017, he became deputy head of the Central Economic Commission and chairman of the PetroVietnam board. In 2020, he was appointed deputy head of the National Assembly Office. He has been Auditor General of the State Audit Office since April 2021.

The decision to appoint Thanh as a Hanoi leader was taken 38 days after former Hanoi chairman Anh was dismissed from his position and arrested for mismanagement involving the Covid-19 test kit fraud, which he committed while working as the minister of science and technology from April 2016 to September 2020.

The Central Inspection Committee had said in March that the Party Committee and officials of the health and science ministries in the 2016-2021 term had been negligent in their management, allowing violations at the ministries and their units regarding the approval, management and sale of Covid-19 test kits.

Phan Quoc Viet, general director of Viet A, admitted in January that he had inflated the price of a Covid-19 test kit by 45 percent and sent around VND800 billion ($35.2 million) as “bonuses” to company partners. Viet said he had bribed certain individuals in this regard.

Several officials including high-ranking military generals and directors of provincial branches of the Center for Diseases Control have been arrested or placed under criminal investigation for their involvement in the case.