Former Director of Hanoi CDC: Forgot to return the "gift" Viet A gave because he was busy

On the afternoon of March 5, Mr. Viet, 51 years old, former director of the Hanoi CDC Center for Disease Control and Prevention, and former head of the Finance Department, Le Minh Tuyen, 50 years old, were tried by the Hanoi People's Court for the crime ofViolation of regulationson bidding causing serious consequences,afterpostponed twice due to Mr. Viet's health reasons.

Mr. Viet was accused of "colluding" with Viet A Technology Joint Stock Company to raise the price of Covid-19 test kits. Hanoi CDC then received a "kickback" of 1.3 billion VND, of which Mr. Viet received 500 million VND.

In court, reiterating the context of the crime, Mr. Viet said that in June 2020, while working as Deputy Director of Hanoi Heart Hospital, he was transferred to take charge of Hanoi CDC in June 2020, in the context of complicated developments of Covid-19. His predecessor, Mr. Nguyen Nhat Cam, was arrested in a scandal related to "inflating" the price of testing equipment, and was later sentenced to 10 years in prison.

During Mr. Cam's tenure as director, the Hanoi CDC was determined to have received 61,100 Covid-19 test kits from Viet A but had not yet paid for them.

He stated that during the entire process of bidding for the test kits, he did not meet privately with Viet A General Director Phan Quoc Viet, but only met him twice at the center, when Viet A came to send a document demanding money, but "CDC did not invite them to work". At these meetings, according to him, Viet A representatives only wanted to pay the remaining money and expressed that if there was a next bid, they wanted to participate.

At the public meeting that followed, the former CDC director stated that there were many people in attendance, including leaders, heads, and deputy heads of departments, about 10 people, so "everything was very clear". Because the incident happened so long ago, he said he could not remember every word he directed, but "the gist" was that Viet A's kit was evaluated by experts as meeting requirements, the CDC had used it before and it was suitable, "trying to buy such a product".

Regarding the standards set by the testing department for the test kit, Mr. Viet said that his major is cardiology so he has no knowledge about epidemic prevention. For bidding-related issues, he has to rely on specialized departments to implement.

Before this testimony, presiding judge Vu Quang Huy questioned, "Previously, the defendant stated that he directed the meeting to 'try to buy products like Viet A's'? As a leader, he must be aware of the technical parameters to ensure objectivity, right?". Mr. Viet replied that he did not realize it at first, but only after closing two bids did he realize that it was beneficial to Viet A.

Regarding receiving "thank you" money from Viet A, Mr. Viet stated that as soon as Viet A General Director Phan Quoc Viet said he had a gift for the CDC, he handed it over to defendant Tuyen to receive. This was said in the middle of a meeting, and many people knew about it. When Mr. Tuyen brought the money to the room, Mr. Viet said he was about to go to a meeting so he was "in a hurry, refused many times" but in the end he still accepted it. After the meeting, he realized that the amount of money was "unusually large", he intended to return it but "the fight against the epidemic was urgent, the work was overwhelming" so he forgot, and only later did he know that it was a gift from Viet A.

The panel of judges cited Mr. Viet's testimony at the investigation agency that as soon as he handed over the money, Mr. Tuyen clearly said it belonged to Viet A. Mr. Viet then asked again, "What about other people?" and his subordinate replied, "It's all done," and gave him a piece of paper with the numbers written on it, which Mr. Viet had looked at.

The entire amount of 500 million VND received by Mr. Viet was reimbursed by his wife.

In his statement later, defendant Tuyen affirmed that after receiving Viet A's money, he divided it among many other officials in the CDC and did not keep the 800 million VND for himself. However, at the investigation agency, these individuals all denied it.

Mr. Tuyen still said today: "Tell it as it is. They deny it, the defendant has no other choice." The above individuals were summoned by the court but all requested absences so they could not confront them directly.

Both Mr. Viet and Mr. Tuyen were assessed to have many mitigating circumstances, and the People's Procuracy proposed a suspended sentence, with Mr. Viet receiving 30-36 months and Mr. Tuyen receiving 24-30 months.

Because Mr. Tuyen still owes 80 million VND in compensation and wishes to pay tomorrow morning, the court extended the hearing to "create conditions" for this defendant to pay the remaining amount.

The court announced that it will pronounce sentence tomorrow afternoon, at 2:30 p.m.

The prosecutor accused,As soon as they took office at CDC Hanoi, Mr. Viet and Mr. Tuyen invited Viet A General Director Phan Quoc Viet and Deputy General Director Vu Dinh Hiep to a meeting to agree on payment for 61,000 test kits and "how to ensure that Viet A wins the bid to sell test kits to CDC Hanoi so that Viet A will not suffer losses".

Two months later, after being informed by his subordinates that he needed to add more than 45,000 test kits while still owing Viet A a lot of money, Mr. Viet directed Ms. Do Thi Thu (Deputy Head of Pharmacy and Medical Supplies Department) to develop the technical features of the test kits when bidding to ensure that Viet A would win the bid, "making a profit to compensate for the unpaid amount of money from the Hanoi CDC", the indictment stated.

On Viet A's side, leaders Viet and Hiep also proactively coordinated with CDC Hanoi to prepare documents for Viet A to win the bid. Hiep provided Ms. Thu with a price quote, talking about the features that must be included in the bidding documents, to ensure that Viet A won the bid.

On August 6, 2020, Ms. Thu submitted a proposal to purchase chemicals, biological products, and supplies to serve the fight against the epidemic in the last 5 months of 2020. Including 38,300 kits, unit price 470,000 VND/kit, total value 18 billion VND.

The proposal was approved by Mr. Viet and deployed by CDC into two bid packages.

Package one,The quantity of 10,000 test kits, totaling 4.7 billion VND, was carried out under the shortened bidding method. Authorities determined that there was not enough basis to conclude that the Hanoi CDC had committed violations.

Second package,The total value of the contract is 13.1 billion VND, carried out through open bidding. Based on the parameters previously discussed with Viet A, Mr. Viet continued to direct Ms. Thu to provide information about the Viet A kit to the valuation agency to issue a valuation certificate with specific technical specifications, which only products manufactured by Viet A Company have.

After Hanoi CDC posted the bidding documents, at the closing time, only Viet A Company submitted documents, thus becoming the supplier for Hanoi CDC with a contract value of 13 billion VND.

The Ministry of Public Security, the Supreme People's Procuracy, in coordination with the Institute of Criminal Science and units under the Ministry of Health, conducted an investigation experiment and determined that the maximum price of Viet A's test kit (including 5% profit) was VND143,000/kit. Therefore, the damage of the case is the difference that Hanoi CDC paid to Viet A in the second bid, which is more than VND9 billion.

Authorities allege that after successfully bidding for two packages of supplies, CDC Hanoi was "thanked" by Viet A for more than one billion VND. Head of Finance Le Minh Tuyen received more than 1.3 billion VND from Viet A Deputy General Director Vu Dinh Hiep, then immediately brought it to Mr. Truong Quang Viet's office and gave him 500 million VND. Mr. Tuyen profited 830 million VND and gave Ms. Thu 30 million VND.

The prosecutor assessed that Ms. Thu did not know that the money belonged to Viet A, and was only working under the direction of her superiors, without any motive of personal gain. Ms. Thu was honest and returned 30 million VND, so she was not prosecuted but was recommended for disciplinary consideration.

Regarding the case, Viet A General Director Phan Quoc Viet and his deputy Vu Dinh Hiep have previously appeared in court twice, in the case related to the Military Medical Academy in late December 2023 and the case related to former Minister of Health Nguyen Thanh Long last January.

In addition to violations at the Hanoi CDC, the investigation agency accused Viet A of colluding in bidding in 20 other localities to be provided with Covid-19 test kits at high prices, causing losses to the state of more than 400 billion VND.