Major vehicle inspection case: Former department head flees abroad after taking bribes

On August 1, the trial of the violation case at the Vietnam Register continued the questioning of the defendants.

Playing an important role in the violations of the River Ship Department, the defendant Do Trung Hoc (former Head of the Department) has fled. Through verification, the defendant Hoc had left the country before the time of prosecution, so the Ho Chi Minh City Police Department issued a wanted notice.

Before the questioning, the panel of judges announced that the defendants who had requested to be tried in absentia due to serious illness had all admitted to the acts as charged in the indictment. Defendant Do Trung Hoc had fled, but based on the statements of the other defendants, there was still enough evidence to prove his criminal acts.

According to the People's Court, bringing defendant Hoc to trial in absentia as prosecuted by the People's Procuracy is completely in accordance with the law.

Defendant Hoc was accused by the People's Procuracy of receiving bribes of more than 2.8 billion VND to issue capacity notices to 38 shipbuilding facilities in Long An that operated illegally.

According to the prosecution, to obtain a notification of capacity, the owners or representatives of these 38 shipbuilding establishments contacted defendant Pham Hoai Ha (former Director of the Long An Register Office) for help and was introduced by Ha to meet Nguyen Xuan Hao (register inspector) to prepare a profile.

Hao asked the shipyard owners to contribute from 30-150 million VND to cover all procedures until they were granted a certificate of capacity. After preparing the documents, Hao sent them to the Registry for evaluation.

Then, the Department's leaders assigned defendant Le Ngoc Tu (Deputy Head of the River Ship Department) to evaluate the files, and Do Trung Hoc was the reviewer.

During the review process, defendant Hoc proactively sent his account number and Nguyen Thanh Le's (Director of Vietship Shipbuilding Industry Design and Consulting Joint Stock Company) to defendant Hao, requesting a transfer of money to have the application approved. In total, Hao transferred 4.1 billion VND to Hoc and Le's accounts, of which more than 2.8 billion VND was for issuing a capacity notice, and the remaining 1.35 billion VND was for Ha to transfer to Hoc to prepare the design documents.

The documents did not meet the requirements for issuing a notification of capacity as prescribed. However, Tu and Hoc still proposed that defendant Tran Ky Hinh (former Director) sign the issuance, allowing the above shipbuilding facilities to operate illegally.

Testifying in court about brokering bribes for the owners of 38 shipbuilding facilities to defendant Nguyen Xuan Hao, defendant Pham Hoai Ha said that the factories had about 2,000 workers, and if they were not given timely notice, they would lose their jobs.

"At that time, the defendant thought about introducing defendant Hao to guide the workshops to make documents, not thinking that he had committed a crime," defendant Ha explained.

"Eating money" from businesses to collude in bidding

Currently, there are 280 inspection centers nationwide using 340 inspection lines provided by 4 companies. Of which, Viet Net Company Limited (Viet Net Company) provides 125 Beissbarth brand inspection lines.

According to the investigation results, in order to win the bid, from 2015-2020, defendant Tran Thi Mien Thuy (Director of Viet Net Company) paid money to leaders at 40 inspection centers in 26 provinces and cities to provide inspection lines and equipment to upgrade inspection lines.

In addition, defendant Thuy also stated that he had given more than 9.8 billion VND to the leaders of the inspection centers. However, apart from this statement, the investigation agency did not collect any other documents or evidence; the leaders of the centers also did not admit to receiving the money. Therefore, the investigation agency found that there was not enough basis for consideration.

Regarding violations in bidding and purchasing inspection equipment at the Registry Department related to Viet Net Company, there have been no results of valuation of the production lines and inspection equipment to determine damages. Therefore, the Investigation Agency has separated the violation of bidding regulations causing serious consequences to continue to verify and clarify.

The trial was adjourned until August 6, when the prosecutor began to indict the defendants.